Irregular Magazine Autumn 2010

Editorial
Nick Johnson & Jason Hubbard
Skirmish Painting Competition Results
Painting Competition
Stage Magician Prestige Class
Dave Barker
Wizard Illustration
Ricardo Guimaraes
11
Tuk Tuk
Will Kirkby
12
Iron, Steam & Really Short People Part 2
Nick Johnson
14
Meet the Mages of Middle Earth
David Kay
23
The Death of Magic
Richard Tinsley
25
Homecoming
Taylor Holloway
28
Didnt We Have a Lovely time the Day We

Went to Shefeld
William Ford
34
A Drink with Nick Kyme
Peter Allison
36
Artist Showcase
Diego de Almeida
39
Euro Militaire 2010
Jason Hubbard
44
Shefeld Kotei 2010
Jim Freeman
46
A Gaming Groups Adventure GD USA
Mike Schaeffer
50
Games Day UK
Jason Hubbard
54
The Application of Paint
David Heatheld
56
Flora Basing
Brett Johnson & Rebecca Hubbard
64
Sculpting Robes in Greenstuff
Richard Sweet
66
A Step by Step; Nanny Ogg
Mike Dodds
68
Gradients
Rebecca Hubbard
72
Discworld miniature Review
Various
75
Hearts & Minds: Flying Lead Supplement
Dave Barker
80
Britanan Grenadiers & Troopers
Peter Scholey
81
Hammers Slammers
Dave Barker
82
Fields of Glory: Renaissance
Nick Slonskyj
83
28mm Sandbag Emplacement
Peter Scholey
85
Cornelius the Wizard
Rebecca Hubbard
86
WW2 German Infantry
Jason Hubbard
87
Editors
Jason Hubbard
Nick Johnson
Layout
Jason Hubbard
Proof Reader
Nick Johnson
Social Media Manager
Rebecca Hubbard
Cover Illustration
Will Kirkby
Cover Layout
Matthew Mella
Comic Artwork
Will Kirkby
Contributors
Peter Allison
Diego de Almeida
David Barker
Mike Dodds
William Ford
William Ford jnr
Jim Freeman
David Heatheld
Jason Hubbard
Rebecca Hubbard
Brett Johnson
Nick Johnson
David Kay
Nick Kyme
Dan Lee
Shane McElligott
Andy Mon
Guy Oxley
Nick Palfrey
Scott Radom
Peter Scholey
Mike Schaeffer
Nick Slonskyj
Artwork
Diego De Almedia
Juan Diego Dianderas
Ricardo Guimaraes
David North
Michael Sutherland
Jason: Well folks, it seems its that time again - another issue of Irregular Magazine is
on the virtual shelf, and what a jam-packed issue we have for you all. We have another another supplement, though I let Nick discuss that particular goody, as he was
involved in the writing of it. What else do we have this issue? Another great painting
tutorial by David Heatheld, a new prestige class for Pathnder and another short
story from Taylor, plus a plethora of other goodies including an interview with Nick
Kyme.
So, what have been up to since the last issue? Well I attended a few shows which
included IMP 2010, Euro Militaire and UK Games Day, all of which have articles in this
issue, though not all are written by little ole me. Ive also started a 12 month mini buying ban.
No, I havent gone bonkers - I just realized that my grey army was getting too big and
so decided on a major challenge for myself. I hit the 40 year mark next October and
decided on a couple of challenges. The rst is getting t - yep I did say t - dont go
into cardiac arrest folks, just because I mentioned being t. The other was to paint as
much of my grey army, which can be viewed here, and not buy any new models during the following 12 months. Ill keep you all up-to-date on my progress during the
year, or my lack of it, though hopefully there wont be a lacking.
What else has been happening? Well, we had our rst printed issue through Lulu.com
last issue, and few of you bought a copy, which was great. Well continue experimenting with this for the time being, as well as continuing with the free PDF.
Next issue well have a Zulu war special in the wargaming section, which will include
an excellent range of articles, tutorials and historical background on the campaign.
The overall theme for issue 7 will be Frontiers, so any potential contributors should
consider that as a guide. Space, fantasy and historical are all potential possibilities. So get the old thinking caps on, and all contributions should be emailed to
irregularmagazine@gmail.com.
Well, thats all folks, see you next time and enjoy the issue.
Nick: That was a busy few months. For a quick overview, I took part in the Warmachine
European Team Challenge at Maelstrom Games, and helped run the second Irregular
Miniature Paintfest at the end of July - reports on both events are in this issue of the
magazine. Outside of these events, Ive been working hard on converting the material
my group came up with when we played the Dresden Files into a supplement - while
it is still a work in progress, I hope to make it available during November. On top of
that, theres been the usual painting and proof-reading going on, so Im not sure
where the time has gone!
One thing that has been occupying me recently, though, is setting up my new blog
- The Renaissance Gamer. I only launched this last week, but Ill be adding content as
we head towards the end of the year. If nothing else, you can see how long I manage
to stick with my rationing programme.....
Next issue is going to be themed around Frontiers, and Im going to be taking a trip
into the nal frontier as I look at some of the games that have arisen from the Star
Trek franchise. Ill also be doing a review of the 4th edition of the Legend of the Five
Rings roleplaying game, looking at the core rulebook and the Enemies of the Empire
supplement.
Ill see you all in the new year.....
Skirmish Painting Competition Results

Heres what the judges had to say about it:
Back in July we announced our summer painting

competition and its sponsor, Dragon Forge Design.
The Skirmish theme inspired action packed poses,
dynamic duels and some classic heroes.
Jason: 9/10 This is a really nice piece, its well painted.

The base is superb, love the tentacle coming out of
the water. A really nice miniature that jumps out at
you, great work.
We had some fantastic entries, from a wide range of

painters and the judges this time around, Nick and
Jason had a tough time calling it on the winner. Each
judge scored each entry out of a possible 10 points,
so there was a maximum of 20. It was really close...but
you dont want to be kept in suspense any longer, so
here are the details of the winners.
Nick: 9/10 - Nice use of blood effects from the sword.

The base is a little busy for my liking, but the piece is
certainly effective.
Total 18/20
Coming in a very close 2nd place, and winning $30 of
Dragon Forge Design goodies is Kyle Hutcheson with
his Bad Moonz Ork Nob.
In 1st place, and winning $50 worth of Dragon Forge

Design goodies is Andy Mon with his striking Oni
Warau.
Jason: 8/10 - Very nicely done, love the work on the

plinth. This is really nicely presented
Nick: 9/10 - Very nice work on both the skin and the
yellow sections - effective without being garish. Great
detail work on the plinth, too.
Total 17/20
In 3rd place winning $20 of Dragon Forge Design

goodies is Stephane with Convict Gunslinger.
Jason: 8/10 - An interesting piece, nice esh on the

mini.
Nick: 8/10 - Excellent attention to detail, though the
proof-reader in me is confused as to why ASH is
capitalised when Wastes isnt. Lovely tones on the skin
and trousers. Good detail work on the base.
Total 16/20
I hope youll agree this was a tightly fought contest;
congratulations to the winners and commiserations
to those who missed out this time around - I do hope
youll enter another of our competitions to try your
hand again.
Here are some of the fantastic runners up.
Painting Competition
Like your historical miniatures? We have just the competition for you!
Closing date for entries is: December 5th 2010.

Entries will be judged by Dave Barker and Jason Hubbard and the winner will receive their copy through
the post.
This issue Irregular Magazine is offering one lucky

winner a copy of Warhammer Ancient Battles 2nd
Edition, which Jason has been using as the basis of his
Dark Age campaign (started in issue 5).
Check out the competition page of our website for

details of how to photograph and submit your entries.
We know lots of our readers enjoy painting historical

gures, so wed like to see what you can produce. Here
are the rules:
Scale: 15mm - 40mm (Nothing smaller, nothing
larger).
Single gure - unmounted only (No units, vehicles or
busts).
Any manufacturer.
Any period of history up to and including War War II.
Must be your own work (No borrowing other peoples work, or teaming up with a friend).
One entry per person only.
Stage Magician
Words: Dave Barker

Illustrations: Jason Hubbard
Prestige Class (Pathnder)

There are many different types of magicians that appear in
fantasy works that are reected in our RPGs. Whether it is
the wise old Elminster, the Chancellor of the Unseen
University or some of the many teenage apprentice
wizards of our own creations, or something in between
- these magicians are almost numberless, but they all share
the archetype of being robed or caped magic users, often
in silly hats and always with a stock of (sometimes inappropriate) spells ready to go.
But I feel that there is one type of magician that is often
overlooked and a little more difcult to represent easily
using the standard rules. This missing mage is the one
with a waxed moustache and goatee beard, both of which
are usually black. The magicians whose clothes are usually
cut rather tighter than a robe; that may even be seen in
trousers and a waistcoat and perhaps even have a touch of
velvet in his couture. But who most certainly has a penchant for sawing young ladies in half!
Yes, the Stage Magician is certainly under-represented in
the role playing games that I have played and I would like
to begin to rectify this oversight with the prestige class for
the Pathnder system that I outline in this article. Admittedly, the Stage Magician may make a better villain than a
PC prestige class, but however you use this prestige class, I
hope you have fun in your Pathnder games!
Stage Magician
There are few that can understand the motivations and
purposes of the Stage Magician. Many of their magical
peers see them as confused sell-outs, trading their hardwon magical skills for a small amount of coin in the back
rooms of seedy taverns, or as hustlers with a few magic
skills pretending to be more than they really are. Other
more kindly views of them are that theyre engaging with
the masses to make the mundane, common folk more
comfortable with seeing magic performed, or that theyre
some kind of entrepreneur, not really suited to real magic,
As soon as Ive nished typing this up, I shall be off to create an evil Stage Magician with a passing resemblance to
The Master from Dr Who the Robert Delgado or Anthony
Ainley incarnations, not the John Simm Master, obviously!
RPG
Hit Die: d6
Requirements
To qualify to become a Stage Magician a character
must full all of the following criteria:
Skills: Bluff 4 ranks, Perform 2 ranks, Sleight of Hand 4
ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks
Spells: Ability to cast arcane spells of 3rd level or
higher.
Class Skills
The Stage Magicians class skills are: Acrobatics (Dex),
Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha),
Escape Artist (Dex), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha),
Profession (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int),
Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modier
but they have at least found a role in life that pays

their way. And indeed, all of these and more have
been true for different Stage Magicians.
But whatever their motivation, Stage Magicians are
most often to be found in or near the entertainment
places of larger cities, plying their trade on stages or
otherwise in front of crowds, confounding the people,
and even many other magicians with their skills and
feats of small scale manipulation and even grand illusion.
Role: Although a Stage Magicians skills are perhaps
not entirely suited to dungeoneering, they most
certainly come into their own in urban environments,
with their dexterous skills, their abilities with people
and their unmagic skills many urban situations are
aided by the presence of a Stage Magician in the
party.
Often, Stage Magicians arrive at their craft through
being Bards, though Rogues who have also acquired
some arcane spellcasting, or arcane spellcasters who
have gained the necessary stage skills can also become Stage Magicians.
Alignment: Stage Magicians are rarely Lawful and
due to the slightly underhand nature of the entertainment that they practice. There are also very few
Chaotic Evil Stage Magicians, with performing and
stagecraft not really being a route to the kind of
personal power that Chaotic Evil individuals tend to
seek. However, there are no alignment restrictions on
becoming a Stage Magician.
RPG
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Stage Magician class.
Level
Base attack Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref Save
Will
Save
Special
Spells per day
1st
+0
+0
+1
+1
Unmagic 1
+1 level of existing class
2nd
+1
+1
+1
+1
Hand Unmagic, Stage +1 level of existing class

Spells 4/day
3rd
+1
+1
+2
+2
Unmagic 2
4th
+2
+1
+2
+2
Penetrating Unmagic +1 level of existing class
5th
+2
+2
+3
+3
Stage Spells 6/day
6th
+3
+2
+3
+3
Unmagic 3
7th
+3
+2
+4
+4
Invisible Unmagic
8th
+4
+3
+4
+4
Stage Spells 8/day
9th
+4
+3
+5
+5
Grand Unmagic
10th
+5
+3
+5
+5
Unmagic 4
Weapon and Armour Prociency: Stage Magicians

gain no prociency with weapons or armour.
Stage Spells (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a Stage Magician can cast spells without their material component,
provided that this is replaced by either a greatly exaggerated somatic component or an extended verbal
component (preferably in a way that puts on a good
show!) as if using the Eschew Materials feat, although
with Stage Spells, material components up to 25gp in
value can be eschewed. Spells cast using this ability
do not increase in spell level or casting time, although
they are more likely than usual to attract attention.
The Stage Magician can use this ability 4 times per
day at 2nd level, and two additional times per day
every three levels thereafter, up to a maximum of 8
times per day at 8th level. The Stage Magician decides
to use this ability at the time of casting.
Spells per Day: When a new Stage Magician level is

gained, the character gains spells per days as if gaining a level in a spellcasting class that they belonged
to before becoming a Stage Magician. The Stage
Magician does not, however, gain other benets a
character of that class would have gained except for:
additional spells per day, spells known (if they are a
spontaneous spellcaster) and an increased effective
level of spellcasting. If the Stage Magician had more
than one spellcasting class before becoming a Stage
Magician, they must decide to which one of these
classes the new level is added for the purposes of
determining spells per day.
Stage Effect Unmagic: This class feature is not explicitly listed on the table above, but it contains each of
the four specic types of unmagic available to a Stage
Magician, as opposed to the more general type of Unmagic, described above. But just like general Unmagic,
none of the effects chosen by the character will be
detectable as being magic. All of the Stage Effect
Unmagic effects chosen by the Stage magician can
be performed at will once learned, provided suitable
materials are to hand.
Unmagic: Starting at 1st level, a Stage magician can

cast spells that behave perfectly normally, but that
cannot be detected as magic, even using the Detect
Magic spell. At 1st level, the Stage Magician gains
the ability to use unmagic to hide 1st level spells and
below; at 3rd level, the Stage Magician can unmagic
2nd level spells and below; at 6th level, the Stage Magician can unmagic 3rd level spells and below and at
10th level the Stage Magician can unmagic 4th level
spells and below.
Once the character has learned a specic Stage Effect

Unmagic (Hand, Penetrating, Invisible or Grand) then
at every level gained by a character after this, they can
learn a specic effect or illusion that falls within one
of the Stage Effect Unmagics that they know, whether
the character takes the level in Stage Magician or
some other class entirely.
Part of the reason for this is possible is that the Stage

Magician learns ways of performing spell-like abilities that do not actually rely on magic itself to take
effect, such as blufng, distraction and sleight of hand
techniques, as well as chemical and physical effect,
amongst other techniques. In addition, the Stage
Magician is also becomes privy to certain secret magics that allow them to disguise the presence or use of
magic itself. However, no spell higher than 4th level
can ever be hidden in this manner.
RPG
At 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th levels of Stage Magician, the

character must learn effects in the new type of Stage
Effect Unmagic that is available to them as described
in detail below.
For example, a Stage Magician who has taken three
levels of Stage Magician has learned three Hand Unmagic effects. If they take the next two levels in Wizard, they can learn two more Hand Unmagic Effects,
but cannot start taking Penetrating Unmagic effects
until they take a fourth level in Stage Magician, when
they must learn one Penetrating Unmagic effect.
Stage Effects can be combined, for example, above
4th level Stage Magician, once Hand Unmagic and
Penetrating Unmagic are both known, a chosen effect
could be to cause a very long chain of pennants to
emerge from an assistants mouth.
the GM, but examples might include: pulling a rabbit
out of a hat, passing a blade (or lighted candle, or
other such item) through ones arm; guillotining an
audience members hand without it being damaged
or cut off; causing large items to be stored in a space
too small for them (i.e., putting a ladder into a sack);
levitating an assistant on the point of a sword; etc.
Hand Unmagic: Beginning at 2nd level, the Stage

Magician begins to practice and learn effects centred
on manipulating small objects that can be incorporated into their. Two such items of Hand Unmagic are
learned at 2nd level.
Details of exactly what effect or illusions are learned
are left up to a discussion between the player and the
GM, but examples might include: ball and cups trick;
producing an egg from behind someones ear; nding
a card in a deck of cards; magically mending a cut
rope; reforming a torn playing card; magically mending a smashed watch; etc.
Invisible Unmagic: At 7th level, a Stage Magician

begins to practice effects that centre on invisibility.
One such item of Invisibility Unmagic is learned at 7th
level.
GM, but examples might include: making all (or part)
of an assistant or audience member disappear (and
reappear again, one hopes!); making fruit or other
items appear out of nowhere; disappearing in a puff
of smoke; causing items in a box to mysteriously appear and disappear from nowhere; etc.
Note: items (and people) that are made to re-appear
should not be allowed to simply be created on a
whim by the player. Anything re-appearing should
have earlier been made to disappear by the character
so as to avoid abuse by over-keen players.
Penetrating Unmagic: At 4th level, a Stage Magician

begins to practice effects that centre around two objects interpenetrating one another, or being in spaces
together where they should not be. One such item of
Penetrating Unmagic is learned at 4th level.
are left up to a discussion between the player and
Grand Unmagic: At 9th level, a Stage Magician

begins to practice effects that are simply larger than
life. One such item of Grand Unmagic is learned at 9th
level.
GM, but examples might include: sawing a lady in half;
causing the fountain in the main square to vanish for
a short period of time; transforming an assistant into
a umber hulk, small dragon or other monstrous creature for a short period; stretching an assistants hands
and feet unnaturally far away from their head; etc.
10
RPG
11
Wargames
Iron, Steam & Really Short People Part 2
In part 1, available in issue 5 of this very magazine, we
saw how I progressed through the rst three months
of lead time before the European Team Challenge
(ETC). With just one month to go before the event,
Id settled on a contract and a warcaster, but that
was about it for progress. Id gotten some warjacks
painted, but I was still woefully lacking when it came
to completed infantry.
Words & Photography: Nick Johnson

Durgen Madhammer - 6 Warjack points
- Ghordson Basher - 7 points
- Ghordson Basher - 7 points
- Grundback Gunner - 3 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - 1 point
Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile - 2 points
Thor Steinhammer - 2 points
- Ghordson Avalancher - 9 points
Horgenhold Artillery Corps - 3 points
Horgenhold Forge Guard (6) - 5 points
Herne & Jonne - 3 points
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (10) - 8 points
+ Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Ofcer and
Standard Bearer - 3 points
Eiyrss, Mage Hunter of Ios - 3 points
Total - 50 points
Time to knuckle down, then - if I didnt, thered be no

point turning up on the day.
June 2010
The submission deadline for army lists was June 18th,
and if my list wasnt in by 5pm my team would be
facing a hefty points ne. Id been kicking around
the idea of exploiting Durgens area of effect (AoE)
manipulating feat with an army designed to blot out
the landscape with a hail of blast templates. While this
would be dangerous on most turns, it would be devastating on the turn that Durgen used his feat, Bombs
Away, thanks to the boosted to-hit rolls and the extra
die on Blast damage rolls.
This list would let me drop 9 AoE attacks without any

concerns, ten if I used Dougals grenade rather than
his Artillerist ability, and even more if I used Durgens
Explosivo spell. The two Bashers would also benet
from Durgens feat if I used their Flak Field ability, as
the Flak Field does Blast damage rolls.
The Saturday before the submission deadline, I arranged to play a 50 point game against Simon, using
one of the scenarios from the tournament pack
provided by Maelstrom. This would allow me to test
the build Id been thinking about, and both Simon
and myself would be able to assess how effective
we thought it would be. The list I ended up taking is
below:
We rolled off, and ended up playing the Convergence

scenario, where the objective is to take and hold a 12
inch circle in the centre of the board, scoring control
points if there are no enemy models within this area
at the end of each turn. I won the roll to determine
who would deploy and go rst, and set up so as to
14
Needing to stop me controlling the objective, Simon

committed his infantry, with Bile Thralls and Bane
Knights advancing into the objective. My sacricial
Basher was butchered by the Reaper and Venethrax,
but strangely none of Simons tougher troops advanced into the control point. The Bane Knights killed
off a couple of Gun Corps, but not enough to worry
the unit - though the front couple of Dwarves were
engaged.
provide as much of a crossre as possible on the

central objective, with the Forge Guard on my left and
Thor, with his pet Avalancher, on my right.
Simon went for a layered deployment, facing Thors
Avalancher with a Machine Wraith and hiding Venethrax on his right ank, away from his arc nodes. The
middle ground was covered by ranks of Bane Thralls
and Bile Thralls, with a counter-charge unit of Bane
Knights on his left.
With Dougal and Reinholdt close by, my fourth turn

was instructive for both Simon and myself - with their
enhancements and his feat, Durgen was able to start
clearing house. The remaining Basher cleared the
Bane Knights tying up my Gun Corps out of the way,
and a hail of shot and shells managed to wipe out
every enemy model in the control area in short order
- the nal shot coming from my Avalancher, which
had nally gotten away from the Machine Wraith. Id
managed to snatch victory from a game I didnt think
I had much chance in, which was a nice achievement.
With the list settled, it was time for me to concentrate
on my painting. By this point, Id left myself quite an
uphill struggle. While Id nished Thor prior to my
game against Simon, that still left me with two heavy
warjacks, a solo, and four units which needed painting
- quite a stretch. The two warjacks were fairly straightforward, though I didnt get to painting freehand
runes on the second Basher. I eventually broke the
back of the Gun Corps, including unit attachment,
within the nal week. The Forge Guard, Artillery Corps,
Dougal and Herne & Jonne were still being worked
on when Simon turned up to collect me on the Friday
evening - they were at a point that they were usable in a game, but not at a stage where I was happy
with them. At 9pm I put the paints away, packed my
gures, and travelled off to Whitwell, ready for the
tournament the following day - I just hoped my painting would be up to scratch.....
Eiyrss was the only model I had with Advance Deployment (AD), and she set up to try to disrupt Venethrax
or his jacks on my left ank. Simon hadnt fetched any
AD troops, which meant I didnt have to worry about
him deploying to counter Eiyrss.
I went rst, and tried to get my troops in position for
ranging shots, as well as to provide a strong position
to advance into the control zone in my second turn.
Unfortunately, all my guns were out of range, even
with deviation. Simon countered by using an arc node
to kill off Eiyrss, and sending his Machine Wraith to
play Chase the Avalancher, with a general advance
towards the middle of the table. In my second turn
I continued to advance, ending up with both Bashers contesting the objective - due to the scenario,
I couldnt claim any control points until the end of
Simons second turn, and he would easily be contesting the zone. As with my rst turn, my re was largely
ineffectual, and Thor and my Avalancher manoeuvred
behind a building to redeploy away from the Wraith
- the warjack was too far away from Durgen to benet
from Explosivo, meaning I couldnt stop it advancing
at him. The only real damage I caused was with my
Gunner, putting several wounds on Gerlak
Slaughterborn.
---------
Simon advanced his Bane Thralls into the control

point in his turn, but didnt really commit his forces
- the main aggressive action he took was to arc a spell
onto my Forge Guard, ensuring that four of them died.
Fortunately for me, the unit passed its command
check, so it didnt ee. Simons Reaper harpooned my
Gunner, dragging it into melee, where it was scrapped
in short order. In my third turn I was able to use
Saturday 3rd July - ETC Day 1

Simon and I arrived at the venue in plenty of time on
the Saturday - this wasnt my rst trip to the Eye of the
Storm, but it was my rst visit with the new gaming
hall open.
15
Wargames
Durgen to drop accurate AoEs on to the Bane Thrall

unit, wiping them out and allowing me to claim a
control point. One of my Bashers slammed Gerlak,
neutralising the threat and following up to tie up the
Reaper as well. The remaining Forge Guard charged
the arc node, but failed to hit it. A lucky scatter shot
from Arquebus Jonne managed to kill off Gorman di
Wulfe, robbing Venethrax of his smoke screen.
Wargames
We met up with Sam and Andres - the Guts n Gears
Venethrax, slowing him down for a turn before it died,

while the other held up his Corrupter and Stalker,
eventually disabling both of them with its Flak Field,
ram attacks, and a cheeky free strike on the Stalker.
My artillery dealt with his infantry and solos, and
Venethrax eventually perished under a hail of re,
after Tims second failed attempt to kill Durgen - getting my caster onto a hill saved his life, as Venethraxs
Hellre attack only narrowly missed.
guys - in the bar area, and had a chat, getting

to know each other a bit before acting as comrades
in arms. After about half an hour, as the bar lled with
gamers from all areas of the country - and even from
overseas - we were allowed to go into the gaming hall
and nd our tables for our rst game.
ETC - Round 1
The victory settled me down a bit, as I had been

nervous, and I set my army out ready for the painting
judging. Having popped down to the shop to have a
ick through the new Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries book, I returned to the gaming oor to nd
that all of the Inglorius BStards had managed a win
in round 1 - three by caster kill, and one by actually
completing the scenarios requirements.
My rst game took place on table 25 - I was initially

scheduled to face Rob Lanes Gorten army, but he had
made a gentlemans agreement with Simon the previous day to use his team feat to avoid mirror matches
in round 1. So, instead of facing another Rhulic army,
I ended up facing Tim Fishers rather nice Cryx army,
led by Lich Lord Venethrax - his list was:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Stalker
- Corrupter
- Cankerworm
- Deathjack
10 Bile Thralls
6 Bane Thralls
6 Bane Knights
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
We were playing the same Convergence scenario that
Id played against Simon a couple of weeks previously,
so I was reasonably condent about my chances,
especially given the amount of infantry in the list.
While some of the infantry was very powerful if it got
into range, I was certain Id be able to destroy most of
it before it became a threat.
Fortunately, my game plan of get a toehold in the
circle, and shell anything else that moves paid off
- one of my Bashers was able to slam Deathjack over
16
Unsurprisingly, this formation is sometimes called the

Winter Guard Death Star.
After the lunch break, where we recorded the rst of

many segments for the Guts n Gears podcast, I found
myself on the heady heights of table 1, facing off
against Wout Maerschalk of Team Sprocket, one of the
two Belgian teams at the European Team Challenge.
Wout was using a Khador army, led by Epic Sorscha
- Id faced the original version of Sorscha many times
during Mk1, but this would be my rst time facing the
Epic variety. Wouts list contained the following:
As I feared, everything that could do go wrong did go

wrong. Wout had his infantry well spread out, so my
AoE attacks werent as effective as normal. My infantry
lacked the speed to threaten the control points effectively, and I even managed to forget to activate Eiyrss
in my rst turn, leading to her death - in my defence,
an Elf in some woods is easy enough to miss.
The highlight for me was being able to wipe out his
Uhlan unit in one turn of ring, aided by a Redlined
Basher slamming one of them. While this did net me
a Control Point, Wout used his warcasters feat the
following turn, and was able to eliminate all four of
my warjacks in a turn - two of them thanks to Fenris
alone.
Forward Kommander Kratikoff

- Beast 09
Wardog
Great Bears of Gallowswood
3 Iron Fang Uhlans
Kovnik Markov
Fenris
10 Winter Guard
+ Winter Guard Ofcer & Standard Bearer
+ 3 Winter Guard Rocketeers
Kovnik Grigorovich
4 Widowmakers
Kell Bailoch
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
None of the rest of the Inglorius BStards fared particularly well, with only Sam managing a win in Round
2, thanks to a sneaky assassination of his opponents
caster. All of our opponents were good players and
good sportsmen, so we didnt mind too much - if
nothing else, it allowed us to return to our natural
mid-table habitat.
ETC - Round 3
The scenario we were playing, Outank, was essentially the same as the rst game, but with two smaller
control points towards the anks, rather than one
larger one in the middle of the board. Wout won the
roll to decide who was going rst, which meant he
also got to choose his table edge - this unfortunately
left me with a large wood directly between my deployment zone and the left-hand control point. With
no troops with the Pathnder ability, this was going
to be problematic.
After the bout of vertigo that had struck on the top

tables, I found myself playing Paul Watson on table
18 in Round 3. Paul, captain of Team Avalanche, was
running Epic Feora at the head of his Menoth army.
Im not normally a fan of facing Menoth, due to the
amount of denial they can produce - I dont mind
things being difcult to do, but out-and-out saying
Thou shalt not! is just downright rude.
Wout, on the other hand, had a lot of manoeuvrability with his cavalry, and some very resilient infantry
in his Winter Guard - the amount of enhancements
they could pick up from Sorscha and Jozef Grigorovich would make them a nightmare to deal with.
17
Wargames
ETC - Round 2
Wargames
Pauls list did feature a number of the Just say no!

elements, in particular the Choir and Covenant:
I advanced towards the rectangular control point

in the middle of the board, only for my Gunner and
some of my Gun Corps to become ensnared by the
Avatars Gaze ability. His Redeemer began to shell
my right ank, whilst Durgen returned the favour
into Pauls Flameguard. In my second turn I launched
a Redlined Basher into the Vanquisher, slamming it
backwards and ensuring I was at least contesting the
control point. Unfortunately, this didnt do sufcient
damage to cripple it, and it died to return attacks in
Pauls third turn.
Feora, Protector of the Flame

- Vanquisher
- Castigator
- Redeemer (bonded)
Avatar of Menoth
2 x Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
Covenant of Menoth
4 Choir of Menoth
10 Temple Flameguard
+ Temple Flameguard Ofcer & Standard Bearer
6 Holy Zealots
+ Monolith Bearer
I somehow managed to forget to activate my Forge

Guard unit on my second turn - they were going to
run up and engage the Greater Destinyd Zealots
so they couldnt throw bombs at me in Pauls third
turn, but it slipped my mind - I suspect the heat and
volume in the gaming room at the time may have had
something to do with this. Paul made a similar error
at the start of his third turn, forgetting to allocate his
focus. When I realised my error, mentioning it caused
Paul to forget to do his Zealots attacks, having moved
them - despite the fact I knew I was going to lose
some key gures to this, I allowed him to go back
Unsurprisingly, Pauls Choir was singing their song

of Thou shalt not shoot to protect his warjacks
for the rst two turns, meaning I was unable to put
early damage on them. Given the sort of damage
that Thors Avalancher was capable of inicting, that
meant I was missing out on some severe softening
up. His Avatar ran around his right ank, getting into a
position to snare my troops with its Gaze of Menoth.
18
Wargames
and take the attacks, which resulted in Eiyrss and two

Forge Guard dying to re bombs.
ETC - End of Day 1

At the end of day 1, the Inglorius BStards were
Having few gures that would be able to get into the

control point and survive, I decided to go for battle
points in my third turn, popping Durgens feat and
opening up on the Covenant of Menoth - if I was
going to lose, I was going to take that tome with me.
Epic Feora happened to be stood in base to base
contact with the book at this point, having advanced
to help destroy my Basher, so I took the opportunity
to boost damage whenever a blast would catch her
- by the end of Durgens activation, she was down to
9 health. Scenting a chance to yank victory from the
jaws of defeat, I used Thor to move my Avalancher
with his Drive: Pronto ability, then advanced further
to get line of sight to the warcaster. A short from the
cannon left her on two health, but killed off the book
- without the obstruction, my Horgenhold Artillery
Corps were able to land a shell on her head and nish
her off.
extremely happy with our performance, somehow

managing to win 9 out of 12 games. Wed started the
day intending only to avoid the wooden spoon, and
instead were wondering whether wed be able to
threaten the top tables during day 2 - for a team of
non-tournament gamers whod only met each other
on the day, that would be a real achievement.
Immediately following round 3, Andres and Sam
popped back to their hotel for something to eat and
a break, while Simon and I stayed to enjoy the barbecue that was being put on - and, in my case, put
up with the World Cup game that was on in the bar.
Downstairs one of the Maelstrom staff was dressed
up in cardboard armour and doing battle with Martyn
Jenkins in his fairy outt, which kept the crowd entertained.
We were both somewhat stunned by the result, as

Id all but conceded going into turn 3 - it just goes to
show how quickly a game of Warmachine can turn
round. Had I been thinking about it, Idve made some
other non-vital activations before nishing Feora
off, to try to fetch the Flameguard down below half
strength, but I wasnt thinking clearly at the time.
Once the football was out of the way, people went

back into the gaming room, either for friendly games
of Warmachine, or to play board games. When Sam
and Andres re-appeared, we recorded an end-of-day1 segment for the podcast, then started a round table
discussion, which was pretty cool - Sam wandered
around to rope people in, until we ended up with ten
or fteen people sat around the microphone, chatting
away about the game. Some of what was said was really enlightening, and I was glad to be part of it.
The rest of the Inglorius Bstards performed well, with

three of us managing caster kills and Sam pulling a
scenario win out of the bag, having killed off everything apart from the enemys warcaster in his game.
19
Wargames
his control area become Tough, granting them a 5+

save if theyre killed. This, combined with the Necrosurgeons ability to ressurect Mechanithralls, meant
that wiping out the unit shielding Terminus would be
very difcult.
As with game 2 - and, in all fairness, game 3 - my army
was not really suited to the scenario - I needed to get
to objectives on the centre line, and hold them for
control points. While I was able to get up-eld, wasnt
able to control the objectives in strength.
Trying to deal with threats in priority order, I used
the Gun Corps mini-feat on my turn 2 to put a lot of
damage on the Deathjack - combined with an Avalancher shot, he was down to 4 boxes. Unfortunately, a
Redlined Basher proved to be less than a eighth of an
inch out of range for a slam which wouldve nished
the monster off. The Flak Field, however, did manage
to nearly deal with Tartarus, leaving him on 1 health
thanks to Durgens feat.
ETC - Day 2
Sunday dawned with a beautiful clear sky, and Simon
and I arrived at Maelstrom in good spirits - after our
performance on the Saturday, I think wed earned that
mood. We joined in an early recording for the podcast
with Gary Moore, one of the guys running the event.
Once all the players had turned up, round 4 was published and the games began.
In retaliation, Terminus, Tartarus and the Bane Knights

counter-charged my Gun Corps, killing all bar the Ofcer in one very messy turn of combat. Realising that
with the number of soul tokens on Terminus at this
point Id lose my warcaster next turn, I concentrated
on killing other elements of Robs army to try to maximise my battle points. Unfortunately, a lucky string of
tough rolls meant that I wasnt able to nish off the
Bane Knights, though Tarterus did eventually die, to a
pistol shot from Herne of all things. Surprisingly, Eiyrss
managed to survive the game, for the only time this
tournament.
ETC - Round 4
My original pairing for round 4 was against Martyn
Jenkins of the Firestorm Fairies, with his Kara Sloanled Cygnar force. However, our skipper decided this
would be a good time to use our team feat, meaning I
faced Rob West with his Cryx, led by Lich Lord Terminus. Looking back over the two days, this feat meant
I narrowly avoided a run of facing 4 team captains in
the last four rounds. Robs Cryx force comprised of:
As predicted, Durgen died the following turn, leaving

me on a 2-2 record. My fellow BStards fared no better, and our round ended as 0-4, knocking us further
into the mid-tables. On the other hand, the Fairies
were going on to the top tables to face off with Team
Sprocket, the guys whod hammered us in round 2.
Lich Lord Terminus

- Deathjack
- Reaper
- Deathripper
Bane Lord Tartarus
6 Bane Knights
10 Bane Thralls
+ Bane Thrall Ofcer & Standard Bearer
10 Mechanithralls
+ 2 Brute Thralls
Necrosurgeon + 3 Stitch Thralls
There was a plan involved when we decided to
change my opponent - given the ease which Id destroyed the infantry of the Venethrax army on day 1,
and Simons infantry-heavy Cryx army in the warm-up
to the tournament, it was felt that Id be able to deal
with a Terminus list. What Simon & I both forgot was
one of Terminus key rules - all friendly infantry within
20
Once wed both stopped laughing, Chris started his

turn - he was somewhat intimidated by the damage
Id managed to get through despite the defensive
spells, and apparently decided to close the gap - most
of his force ran to engage me, and he used Strykers
feat, Rolling Thunder, to tie up as much of my front
line as possible, killing off a couple of Forge Guard
and just under half of the Gun Corps unit. Strangely,
with Stryker not ending the turn in combat, Chris
chose to change his Arcane Shield target to Ol Rowdy
rather than his warcaster.
ETC Round 5
After the defeat that we had received in round 4, the
Inglorius BStards retired to the bar to regroup and
recharge in preparation for the nal round. Suitably
refreshed, we returned to the gaming hall for our nal
game, ghting for pride. I found myself facing the
Cygnar army of Chris Roberts, on the table next to the
one Id played my rst game on the day previously.
Chris list was:
In my turn, things looked somewhat grim - however,

if I could avoid a free strike from the Lancer, I was in a
position to potentially eliminate Chris warcaster. One
Basher stood up to close the gap, using its Flak eld
to feed Durgen a focus point. With my warcaster free,
I was able to go on the offensive, using Reinholdt and
Dougal to enhance his offensive potential. Two boosted shots later, and Stryker was looking the worse for
wear - and the last Stormguard had been eliminated.
A follow-up shot from the Artillery Corps wasnt quite
so fortunate, as it managed to scatter back on to my
Gun Corps, and kill off just enough of them to give
Chris some battle points for the unit.
Lord Commander Stryker

- Ol Rowdy
- Stormclad
- Lancer
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
10 Sword Knights
6 Stormguard
6 Stormblades
For once, however, the Avalancher didnt let me down

- from its hilltop perch, it managed to land a shot
directly on Ol Rowdys head, and the blast damage
was enough to annihilate the Lord Commander. Had
I been thinking, rather than succumbing to a rush
of blood to the head, Idve made my attacks with
the Forge Guard and Gun Corps rst, in the hope of
bringing one of his other units below half strength unfortunately, killing the warcaster took priority. Chris
remarked that he thought Stryker was safe at the end
of his turn, which he realised now was a mistake.
With the scenario being Killbox, I didnt have to advance too far to ensure I wasnt going to lose by accident, which made a refreshing change after the three
preceding scenarios. Looking at Chris army, I knew my
AoEs could do some severe damage - or I did, until
Chris started spreading the defensive buffs around.
The combination of Arcane Shield, Deection and
Rhuperts Heroic Call made it very tricky to take down
Chriss troops, and when the smoke cleared from my
my rst proper ring phase, Id downed ve Stormguard, a couple of Gun Mages and a Sword Knight.
When the round came to an end, Simon had managed a win, while Sam lost his game. Andres managed
one of the few draws of the weekend, leaving the
Inglorius BStards on a record of 11 wins, 1 draw and 8
losses - not as good as wed been hoping when day 2
dawned, but certainly respectable.
Or I had, until Arquebus Jonne opened re.

Trying to take down more of the lightly armoured
Gun Mages, Jonnes shots had fell short by a couple of
inches. The rst scatter roll went parallel to the table
edge for a full six inches, landing in the middle of nowhere. Jonnes second template also scattered away
21
Wargames
from the intended target, mildly annoying the last

Stormguard. The third template, however, scattered
towards Chriss somewhat confused Stormsmith,
catching him in its blast and taking him out. Guns
with a 12 range shouldnt be killing solos roughly 21
away.....
Wargames
Conclusions
Team Pos
Team/Player Name
Total Score
Game Pts
Sports Pts
Painting
13
Inglorious BStards
79540
47340
16600
15600
Simon Robinson
11160
4000
4000
Nicholas Johnson
12560
4000
4000
Sam Sedghi
12760
4400
4000
Andres Olivares
10860
4200
3600
Put simply, it was an amazing weekend. I had some

awesome games, met some great people, and learned
a lot about the army I took to the event. Ive quoted
our gures just above - as you can see, we managed
to place 13th out of 26 teams, which was a great
result for us. It is especially good when you consider
how little preparation Id managed prior to the event
- I think 6 practise games is a new record low for me.
When the results were announced, it turned out that
Team Sprocket, who wed played in round 2, were the
overall winners, while the Firestorm Fairies - our round
4 opponents - managed to take second place. With
this information, being defeated 1-3 and 0-4 by them
didnt seem quite so bad. Even more importantly,
wed managed to place just above the Dragon Slayers
team, proving that in a format like this even casual
gamers can be a threat. The one thing that surprised
me was that, over the course of 5 games I didnt play
against a single Hordes player - with the Mk2 version
of the Hordes core rulebook and cards not
having been released by the tournament, however, I

shouldnt have been that surprised.
So, whats next for me? Well, by the time you read this
I should have nished painting the last dozen gures
that I wasnt quite happy with. Ive received a couple
of new pieces to work on - Harlan Versh and a second
Mule, amongst others, so Ill be continuing to paint
Mercenaries. I intend to attend the Benelux Masters
in October, money and government bureaucracy
notwithstanding. I sincerely recommend that, if you
get chance, that you give Warmachine Mk2 a try - Im
sure youll enjoy it.
22
Words: David Kay
Photography: William Ford & Brett Johnson

of Ruin. In Angmar, Dismay is the weapon of choice,
while the War Priests of the Fallen Realms use Darkness.
These differences mean that the armies all get the
chance to load up on multiples of different spells. A
Misty Mountains army with three shamans all wanting to cast Bolt of Fire will play differently from a
Fallen Realms army where each War Priest will be
casting Pall of Night. Theres no need to worry about
focus roles with the level 1 casters, just pick your best
spell and cast.
For those who like their magic as big and splashy as
possible there are large and legendary options. The
Necromancer, The Nine Are Abroad - why choose one
Nazgl when you can have them all? - and Sauron
are all powerful casters. The Balrog and Dragon are
also strong spellcasters, through this is generally
considered secondary to their even stronger ghting
abilities.
Wizards in War of the Ring come in many forms. As

well as more recognisable gures such as Gandalf or
the Nazgl, there are lesser known spellcasters available. Are Moria Goblin shamans worth it? Just what is
an Elven Stormcaller? All is answered here.
The Forces of Good

What does Good have to combat all this? Only the
Elves have spellcasters native to their list, all other
armies must rely on allies from the Forgotten Kingdoms, or the Elves. Allied spellcasters are worth their
points, for their ability to help your own army, or to
actively ght back against your opponents magical
attacks. In Middle Earth, theres nothing odd about
The Forces of Evil

Evil armies are rightly considered to have a magical
advantage in War of the Ring. With spellcasters spread
across every list, there is always a native option to go
with. Evils lore access is focused around Ruin, Dismay
and Darkness, all lores geared towards making your
opponents day miserable. Whats not to love?
The Nazgl are rightly feared as the most efcient
and deadly spellcasters on offer to evil armies. Each
Nazgl is a level 3 caster, has access to both Darkness
and Dismay, and comes with a powerful secondary
ability all of its own. There are no bad Nazgl abilities,
only good and really good. For this reason your primary (and possibly only) spellcasters will be Nazgl.
After the Nazgl, there are some level 2 casters such
as The Mouth of Sauron, and Kardush Firecaller, who
can give your army a further magical boost. While not
as powerful as a Nazgl, they are still useful additions
to your list.
Each evil army has native shamans, all level 1 casters,
which can often be overlooked for the ashier Epics.
The shamans and Easterling War Priests for Fallen
Realms shouldnt be totally overlooked, as they can be
an important back up. In Mordor, the shamans access
Darkness. Misty Mountains and Isengard make use
23
Wargames
Meet the Mages of Middle Earth
Wargames
charge this ability. Unlike the Nazgl, each of the Istari

comes with a different spell lore or lores, and cover
Ruin, Command, Dismay and Wilderness between
them.
Wilderness and Command predominate among Good
spellcasters, much as Darkness and Ruin do with Evil.
Wilderness has a special importance for Good armies,
in that it acts as a counter-spell for the dreaded Pall of
Night spell. Let your opponent cast away, then simply
blow away the pall with your own Call Wind spell and
be free to charge and shoot. Call Wind alone is often
considered reason enough to take a Wilderness caster.
Along with the individual Epic Heroes, the Forgotten
Kingdoms list offers Legendary formations of casters.
Since they will only ever be allies, they are reserved
for the largest games, where they wont take up too
much of your army. The ve Istari together will take
up all your allies allowance at 2,000 points and are
probably best left for games which are larger still. The
main advantage that the Good Legendary formations
have over their evil counterparts is their access to
Command spells. This means that the formations can
heal themselves after they take casualties (as long as
there is someone left to cast the spell!), and operate
longer on the battleeld.
Gandalf or Radagast popping up to help a Dwarf

army, and such help is often needed.
Elven Stormcallers are the only non-epic, non-legendary caster the good armies have, and these are
restricted to Galadhrim regiments only. These level
1 casters use Wilderness, a useful lore to have. In
practice, unless you are running a themed Galadhrim
force, you are unlikely to call on a Stormcaller. Elven
epics offer more exibility in casting, and Galadriel,
Arwen, or Thranduil are all worth the price of their
inclusion in your force.
Magic dont go to war without it

In War of the Ring, magic can offer you a critical edge
or critical defence against your opponents army at
key moments in the game. While theres no need to
overload yourself with spellcasters, one or two per
thousand points will strengthen the rest of your army.
The key consideration should always be to choose
casters using a lore that will be most useful to your
armys strategy and role on the table.
In the Forgotten Kingdoms list the Istari dwell. Like

the Nazgl for Evil, the Istari are notable for their abilities as much as for their spellcasting. Gandalf has his
own special spell, Saruman his voice, and Radagast
boasts unlimited spell range and his special you cant
24
The Death of Magic
Words: Richard Tinsley

B/W Illustration: Michael Sutherland
We are the strong, we survive. Here in the Wyrd Wood

we thrive, for we know the hidden paths and fear no one.
We keep watch for the return of The Troglodyte and the
return of the old magics. We are the last who remember
the truth how the false god did fall and the world knew
war and devastation unlike anything it had known before,
even during the holocaust.
Based on Stock Image by Elandria
To tell the story of the death of magic you must go back

many millennia, to when the world was still a wild and
untamed place and the cities of Man, Elf and Dwarf were
still in their infancy. The world belonged to the beasts and
the monsters; Dragons fed and scorched the land as they
saw t, great nations yet to be were mere efdoms and the
Orc and Goblin roved the land in vast numbers, afraid of
no one.
In the midst of this turmoil a priest emerged, preaching
of a new god a benevolent deity of nature and rebirth
whose totem was a giant rat. The true name of this priest
is lost to time but he would become know to all the
peoples of Porth as Ratrimack, the high priest of Ruvos.
For countless years Ratrimack fought against the humanoids and their masters, most notably his arch-enemy the
immortal, crippled wizard Madrack. Ironically it would be
the rivalry between these two great powers that would
lead to the death of magic.
Eventually the lands of the Eastern Reaches would become
home to great nations and peaceful villages as the tide of
evil abated in what became known as the Monster Wars.
The history of the Monster Wars has been told elsewhere
and does not truly affect our story, however.
25
Ratrimack founded a land based on the worship of his

god; Ruvos. The faithful would slowly go through a metamorphosis into some form of Rat-men and join the higher
echelons of the church. Rat-men missionaries and temples
to Ruvos could be found all over Porth from Selibon to Terrana and Val Harkas. Over the centuries it became recognised as a great force for good in the world. However, even
Short Story
many other countries outside of the Eastern Reaches

in the belief that once he had killed everything there
he would stop his wanton slaughter. As men and
their allies died Ratrimack raised even more undead
minions to do his bidding and continue the ght.
Eventually all of the nations of the Eastern Reaches
had fallen except for Sandria; whose natural borders
had prevented a successful invasion. Then Ratrimack
turned his attention to the continent of Thane.
As a former Champion of Porth many of the worlds
most powerful individuals had been allies of Ratrimack and refused to raise their hands against him.
When it appeared that his lust for death would
encompass the whole planet The Troglodyte and his
comrades hatched a daring plan. Ratrimacks immortality was as much a curse as a gift; if you killed him in
some way he would appear to die, but his soul would
inhabit the nearest available body, often the body of
the one that killed him. Over time the body would
transform into the appearance and physique of Ratrimack which meant that you didnt actually dare to kill
him! There was a time when Ratrimack was killed and
didnt come back by the Ranger Erinmore. It appears
that Erinmore had a sword which had been given to
his parents by a mysterious stranger when he was still
a babe. The sword was called Soulforge and it had
the unique ability to devour the soul of somebody
killed by it.
then there were rumours of misdeeds and strange

disappearances, of villages destroyed and massacred
while the faithful of Ruvos survived.
But Madrack still lived and felt that he had seen the
true face of Ratrimack and set about showing the
entire world the truth behind the facade. What he in
fact discovered was something that even he could
not possibly have imagined! Ratrimack was well
known as a cleric of great power as the head of the
church of Ruvos, and having become immortal during
his years of adventuring, there was no more powerful a priest on all Porth. What most did not know was
that Ratrimack was also a skilled mentalist able to use
his mind to dominate others and transport himself
anywhere with a thought. He used this power to
weave an incredibly powerful glamour which masked
the true nature and purpose of the beings under his
inuence. The most shocking part of the whole thing
was the revelation that Ruvos did not and had never
existed and the power Ratrimack wielded came from
an unknown source.
The knowledge to create such a sword had been lost,

but The Troglodyte took his band back in time to a
point in history before Erinmore received the sword
and was able to copy and enhance it so that Ratrimack could not escape the blade as he had before.
It was then The Troglodyte which gave the sword to
Erinmore as told in the history books.
The Troglodyte then returned to the correct time
and prepared to face the forces of Ratrimack in what
became the greatest and most deadly battle in the
history of Porth. The Troglodyte, Alasander Cortalis,
Goldmoor the Dwarf and their Elven allies along with
a battalion of Knights of Justicia had the sole job of
It was widely know that Ratrimack was subject to

rages and had exhibited periods of mental instability
due to the nature of his immortality. With his great
lie revealed he seemed to have lost any semblance of
control whatsoever. His Rat-men missionaries were
unleashed all across the world in acts of terrorism and
assassination taking out prime targets and individuals.
Ratrimack then transported to the South where he
had erected a great magical barrier to prevent the
undead created during the Monster Wars from plaguing the lands and keep them contained. He brought
down the barrier and freed the undead, taking command of these fearsome forces.
Ratrimack then began the systematic annihilation
of all living things not allied to him across the lands
of the Eastern Reaches. Many ed rather than face
the might of Ratrimacks army, seeking refuge in the
26
Short Story
killing Ratrimack with the sword. Ratrimack was not

alone, as well as his hordes of undead he had a number of Dragons at his command, Giants from the
northern mountains, Orcs, Beholders, Goblins and
other spawn of evil. The battle raged for hours, with
much blood spilt on both sides. The valiant Knights
of Justicia rode into combat against the dragons to
be met by their fearsome breath of re, lightning, ice,
acid and poisonous gas. The marching of feet and
the sheer volume of blood turned the ground where
they fought into a quagmire. Finally Alasander and
Ratrimack faced each other in combat and Alasander
managed to kill Ratrimack with the blade created by
The Troglodyte and based on the Soulforge.
No one could have predicted what the nal end to

Ratrimacks evil would bring however. There was a
howling as if the very soul of the planet had been
destroyed and the magic weave which gave all
wizards and their ilk power shattered into a billion
shards of light, to be extinguished forever. The nal
death of Ratrimack was also the death of magic on
Porth, seemingly forever.
The world was sent into utter turmoil; when you
can rely on magic and magicians for the simplest of
things, to have that taken away is a fatal blow to society. The Sun Empire in the West had long used technology instead of magic and with its now far superior
military might it would rule the lands of Porth for four
thousand years until magic once again bloomed in

the world.
As for the Troglodyte, Alasander, Goldmoor and the
sword they vanished at the end of the battle and have
not been seen since. More than ten thousand years
have passed since the death of magic and the world
no longer remembers that these events ever happened. The magic that now infuses all things on Porth
is a pale comparison of that which was once in mortal
and immortal hands. All is forgotten and lost, except
by us. We are the strong, we survive. Here in the Wyrd
Wood we thrive for we know the truth of things, and
we wait...
27
Short Story
Homecoming
Words: Taylor Holloway

Illustrations: David North, Juan Diego Dianderas
For my Father.
gut you and leave you for the watch.
Carry on my wayward son,

Therell be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest,
Dont you cry no more.
Petyr took a step back, Is that what you held to your

sisters throat when you deowered her?
- Kansas, Carry on my Wayward Son.
The small boy held out the weapon menacingly, No.

Its the second thing that I stuck into your mother. I
think she liked the rst thing I stuck her with better.
No one laughed.
1.
Petyr had heard enough. If tonight was his night

to make good on all the larceny and suffering he
inicted over the past years, so be it.
Mere words could not describe the squalor of Khenmoors infamous beggar district. Cold, wet, tired are
three that come to mind, and yet they still didnt do it
justice. The air reeked of crisp ice and rotten dog. The
rain, thought of as cleansing, seemed only to make
the dirt run and pool faster.
He charged.
The boy with the knife was the rst he hit, bringing
his st down in a solid jab into the small part beneath
the nose and above the lip. The boy dropped the
knife, and Petyr took the opportunity to kick it aside.
Now the ght was almost fair.
It splattered against the pavement, the puddles

reecting ashes of lightning bursting across the
bruised and battered sky. The sound of splashing
echoed along the stone-wrought alleyways - a young
man of fourteen years ran through the warren, unarmed and tired.
Something hard connected with the small of his back.

Petyr responded with a twist of his ankle, and ailed
with the back of his st. It connected with something warm and soft, and he heard steel crash to the
ground. Hoping it wasnt an axe, he followed up the
vicious attack with a left-handed hook to the knifeboys nose. There was a satisfying crunch and a shriek.
He came to a stop and placed his right hand to his

chest, as if measuring his heart beat. He tried not to
gasp for air, but the cold made it difcult as steam
poured from his nostrils and off his skin. The young
dark-haired man then placed his hands on his knees
to recover, albeit slowly.
My nobe! You bwoke my fukbin nobe! The boy

shouted as he went to his knees.
There was a tell-tale jingle when he moved, and

anyone experienced in dealing with coin could tell
that the clink from his belt-pouch wasnt from just a
few silver clanking together. He reached down and
grabbed them, feeling their reassuring weight before
moving on.
There was no time to check his back as the third

of the boys, a lumbering brute Petyr knew as Ox,
moved into the fray. The kid was slow, Petyr knew, but
had more experience ghting than he did. Keeping
his cool, he kept an eye on the blond boy with the
cauliower ear while stepping to the side and kicking a metal pipe laying in a gutter. The bar connected
lengthwise across Oxs shins, sending him to the
ground and into a haphazard screaming roll. With Ox
down, Petyr turned to face the blond boy.
He jogged down a few more alleys and ended up face

to face with three young men. Their dingy pants were
stained with mud and oily rain water, and their leather
jackets all bore the heraldry of a closed black iron
gauntlet.
He was gone.
Nice try, Petyr, but the jig is up, started the biggest
one a blond haired brute with a cauliower ear.
The shock of his mistake, and a slash from the crude

knife, sent a cold shiver through his stomach. Cursing, he reached out at the blond boy, only to have his
hand slashed from thumb to wrist, his blood decorating the street. Gasping, Petyr fell to his knees, clutching the gaping wound in his stomach, and hugging
his wounded hand to his chest.
The dark-haired boy, Petyr, smirked. The jig is up? Are

you a sherman, or a Black Hand?
The smallest one piped up, taking a step forward as
well and drawing a knife. It was a cruel looking blade,
looking like it may have been a spear-head at one
point, shoved into a stick and bound with leather
string. More of a Black Hand than youll be after we
Stars danced across his vision while he struggled to

remain conscious, but it was a losing ght. Falling
28
Short Story
face down in the pavement, he could hear Ox laughing and feel the blond boy going through his pouch.
Petyr thought he heard the kid with the broken nose
holler out to somebody, and there was a shout - and
then there was nothing.
Y-You, sputtered Petyr though blood-ecked lips,

You helped me?
2.
They were going to kill me.
Wake up, boy.
The smith nodded again. They were until I got to

it, but I wanted to see how well you did rst. Not to
mention, you deserved the beating they gave you up
until you got stabbed in the guts.
The smith nodded, You were outnumbered three to

one, and you were unarmed. Im surprised you put as
much hurt on them as you did.
Petyr slowly opened his eyes. Above him was a

thatched roof and wooden beams, and to his surprise,
they looked strikingly familiar. He looked around, and
saw the anvil, the furnace and a collection of swords,
armours and horseshoes and it hit him like no blow
ever had.
Petyr looked away, ashamed. Im sorry...

Not as sorry as youre going to be if you keep on
ghting like that. You ght like a man looking for
death - you didnt close your eyes once, except when
you saw the big un go down.
The Smithy!
Sitting up quickly was a bad idea, Petyr quickly found
out, as he felt stitches tear in his stomach. Warm uid
rushed down his hips and thigh. He lay back down,
tears stinging his eyes in pain.
Im sorry I broke into your shop. I dont know how

I can repay you for saving my life... They probably
would have cut my throat.
Whoa! I just put your guts back in there. It would be

awful rude to be pulling them out again. The speaker
was a short, but striking man Petyr estimated to have
seen at least his ftieth year. It didnt take him long to
gure out by the size of his arms, that this man was
the owner of this ne and recently robbed establishment.
The smith nodded. Keep your money - you earned it.

Earned it? I stole it from your safe!
You did, and its a damned expensive safe. You also
taught me not to buy from that crooked locksmith
across town, the smith scratched his head and his
voice softened. And as for repaying me for saving
29
Short Story
your life, youre going to earn some more money

learning how to make an honest living.
metal items to sell and trade to the Galdurfolk for

supplies. During the evening, Bowen took Petyr from
his metal-working and taught him the art of war. It
was during one of these sessions that they came,
bringing Petyrs new and happy life to a tragic end.
Petyr was shocked, Youre going to teach me how to

be a blacksmith?
Aye. And how to ght. I used to be a mercenary once,
and since I have no one to pass on this knowledge to,
I suppose a sorry street-urchin will do.
The evening was cold for late summer, and a cool

northern wind cut through their woolen clothing. The
clash of steel rattled through the trees, and echoed
back to them joylessly. Bowen threw a broad slash
at Petyrs mid-section. Petyr raised his arms in the air
and deftly stepped away from the blade, feeling the
force of the blow drag his shirt with the blade. His legs
betrayed him, though, and he stumbled backwards,
leaving the young man on his back. The broad smith
stood over his apprentice, sword to his chin.
Thank you. I - I dont know what to say...
Dont say anything, boy. Go to bed. Well talk about

this more when youre able to walk again.
Petyr leaned back, and closed his eyes. Whats your
name?
Yield?
He didnt stay awake long enough to remember a

response.
Petyr slapped the blade away. Aye. Dont I alwa-... He

trailed off as he watched a young woman stumble,
swaddled in rags, from the woods.
Bowens eyes followed Petyrs, only to spy the same.
He stiffened, and sheathed his blunted tourney-sword.
3.
Four year passed, and much changed.
You there, woman - are you well? He approached

the collapsed gure, his hand outstretched. A cold
feeling suddenly swept over Petyr, chilling him to the
bone.
Skirmishes between Cicerelle and Elysia became common-place, and soon enough, war was on the horizon.
Lords called upon their knights, and knights called
upon commoners to join the fray. Soon enough,
everyone had seemed to move closer to the border of
Cicerelle, and Northern Elysia was an empty place.
Something was wrong. The young warrior was on his

feet in a ash, his tourney-sword in hand.
None know exactly how it happened, but the rst

blow had been struck by Elysia, who blamed the
people of Cicerelle for bringing the Yellow Sickness
to the border. Cicerelle struck back, and struck hard.
Before everyone knew exactly what was happening,
Elysian militants were rounding up Cicerellians within
the Kingdom, and sending them to work camps.
Elysians who refused to ght were also put in these
camps, and those who ed the conscription were considered worse than Cicerellians, worse than Galdurfolk, and worse than the waste that pumped through
Khenmoors sewers.
Bowen, no!
It was too late. Bending over the woman, Bowen
whispered something to her. She then was on him,
and though she couldnt have weighed more than
eight stone, the smith was on his back with his feet
thrashing. Petyr threw all his weight into the blow. The
sword was blunted, but there was a sickly crunch as
the back of her skull caved. A strike that would kill a
grown man was shrugged off as the creature pulled
itself to its feet. Like a vile puppet, it shuddered and
moved awkwardly, with its feet stepping forward well
before the rest of its body. As Petyrs eyes trailed to
her face, it was apparent this woman was no longer
alive. One of her eyes bulged horribly in the wrong
direction, her throat had a gaping hole from her chin
to her collar bone, and one of her breasts looked as
though it had been gnawed off.
During this time, Petyr and Bowen (for that was the
smiths name - Bowen Smith) moved their home to
start a new life near Galdur, hopefully selling the
barbarians their goods. It wasnt as protable as living
in the big city, but it was a living, which is more than
they could say should they have stayed within the
citys limits.
Horried, Petyr backed off, his sword tight in his grip.

Slowly, her hand reached to her throat and squeezed.
A horrible rattling voice warbled and shook as it left
her lips.
The days were long. Bowen taught Petyr how to forge

his own tongs, and then how to heat and cool the
steel to create a sharp, yet strong blade. Acting as
Bowens apprentice, he quickly picked up the trade
and was making swords, armour and other useful
Cold.
30
Short Story
She took another shaky step forward.
Only duty remained.
Cold!
Hefting his blade, he took it in two-hands and lashed

out. The blade did not falter as it struck the wight in
the tattered remains of her neck. The creature fell
backwards, her body hitting the ground followed
quickly by her rolling head.
She lashed out at him with lightning speed. Her ngers were sharp extensions of bone, and Petyr could
only guess what had happened to the skin that used
to sheath them. He side-stepped and was turning to
ee when he saw Bowens broken body.
Gasping for breath, Petyr walked over to where
Turning and facing the creature, Petyrs fear melted

like heated ice.
Bowen lay and inspected the damage. Half of his

throat was torn out, and he was lying in a pool of
31
Short Story
Yes. When a jttilinen kills another, that one who
died will become a jttilinen himself.
quickly spreading blood. Cursing, he knelt down. A

hand squeezed his arm. Too tired to recoil, he stared
dumbly as Bowen opened his eyes and said one word,
spattered in blood and spittle.
Y-You mean that Bowen will become one of those

things?
Silver.
The pale Galdurfolk was solemn. You must forge a

weapon made of kaunopuheinen, and wait for him;
otherwise he will kill you in your sleep.
That was the word that Bowen Smith ended his life
with. Not knowing what else to do, Petyr wept. The
rain started shortly afterwards.
Petyr remembered Bowens last words. Silver. You

mean silver?
4.
Yes. Silver.
Petyr had buried him beneath an oak tree near a

pond where they had gone shing once. He had
caught a river pike, and they had eaten it with spicy
jelly they had traded for a few arrow heads and a dagger. That pond was now a dangerous mire rather than
the glistening joy of that summer afternoon.
The two ate the venison, and Petyr gave Miko as many
arrowheads as he could carry. When Miko left, Petyr
scrounged the hovel for all of the silver coins he could
nd, and smelted them down, combining the melt
with a liberal amount of iron. Combining the two
wasnt nearly as difcult as he had imagined. When
it cooled, he began to hammer the rod into shape,
smashing his hammer into the rod until he felt blisters
form on his palms, and still he beat the metal into
submission.
Two days later, Miko came to trade some venison for

some arrow heads. The hunter had long been a friend,
and his arrival wasnt all together unexpected. He was
surprised to nd that Bowen was no longer alive, and
he consoled Petyr when he cried on his shoulder.
Morning came, and as the rst birds began to sing,

Petyr was quenching the blade into fresh snow. It was
much larger than he was used to, with the blade and
tang standing as tall as himself. He gave the steel a
rest, and began to work on the hilt and grip. It was
My friend, you need to prepare for his homecoming.

Petyr wiped the tears from his cheeks. His homecoming?
32
at him as if remembering some fragment of his shattered memory.
Denying himself sleep, Petyr set to nishing the weapon, sharpening the blade in a downward fashion. By
the time the blade was at its sharpest, the crickets
were signaling the coming of night. Before he could
consciously decide to stay awake, sleep took him into
its grasp.
Yield? It asked, as if with no comprehension of the

word. The concept of mercy was lost on this creature
as was love and hope. The dead thing salivated and
waited.
5.
Somehow, Petyr had managed to maintain a solid

grip on his sword. Raising it in a savage arc, it hacked
into Bowens broken face. Petyr let go of the blade
and scrambled to his feet. The body of what used to
be Bowen tumbled backwards, before nally being at
rest. The sword stood absurdly erect moments before
nally crashing into the ground.
Im sorry.
A fortnight later, Bowen returned home.

Evening was falling, and so were the leaves. Autumn
had nally made an appearance in the far north, and
the crisp smell of snow was in the air. Petyr was in
the yard, practicing with his new blade. If asked, Petyr
could not tell you what forced him to turn his gaze
to the old oak and the pond where he had buried
Bowen, but he did only to see his former mentor
shambling towards him, rotting. As with the last creature of this sort, Bowen now moved as though he was
some sort of broken marionette. Long, striding and
shaky steps drew him forward.
Silence.
Petyr walked over to the body and picked up his
weapon. The jttilinen lay still. He reached down
and dragged the body back to the forge. Apologizing to Bowen again, he began to grab whatever was
important to him. Clothing, blankets, his tools - his
backpack was beginning to feel heavier than when
he rst came to this place four years ago. Once he had
everything, he pulled all of the useful goods from the
shop and placed them in barrels and crates outside.
Cold. He croaked desperately, Cold!

Petyr opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came
out. Frozen, he waited for the jttilinen to nish him.
Miko would come tomorrow, and he was welcome to

it.
Soooo cold.
It was an arms length away now, shuddering as it
moved towards him. White, dead eyes met his and
hardened his resolve.
Once everything of value was clear, he stuck a torch

into the forge and then threw it onto the bed. He considered for a moment taking Bowens tools with him,
and then quickly decided against it.
Coooold...
This was his pyre.
Petyr leveled the blade, and felt tears sting his eyes
as he brought it down. Unlike the creature he had
recently dispatched, Bowen darted away from the
blade and hissed at his former apprentice. It was then
the dance began.
The world seemed to light up around him as he

picked up his backpack and walked away. The night
was cold, and a single snowake fell, followed by a
few more. Before he knew it, the ground was blanketed in white, and the heat at his back faded. It was then
that he heard a voice, though this was a very different
voice than the hisses and snarls he had heard when
he was ghting. Where the voice of the undead monster he had dispatched was cold and emotionless, this
was soulful, deep and resonated with love.
They circled each other for what seemed hours, each

weaving and dodging Bowen moving away from
the gleaming blade and Petyr parrying off savage
slashes from grave-stiffened claws. Bowen drove him
back, each claw getting closer and closer to connecting with soft esh.
Thank you, Son.

It was then that Bowen swung at Petyrs mid-section,
forcing him to step backwards. Petyr raised his arms
in the air and deftly stepped away from the claws,
feeling the force of the blow drag his shirt.
His legs betrayed him, and he fell backwards.
Wiping away his tears, Petyr Smith walked silently

down the kings road.
Bowen stood over top of Petyr dumbly, staring down
33
Short Story
late afternoon before it was nished and ready to be

sharpened.
Didnt We Have a Lovely Time the Day We Went to Shefeld

Words: William Ford
An account of our day at IMP2
Photography: Jason Hubbard
To start with I must say that, having never visited Shefeld

before, how easy it was to get to where we needed to be
and to nd the car park recommended by the organisers.
We were a little nervous about the event being split over
two venues but as soon as we arrived we realized that we
neednt have worried as they were only a little way apart
on the same street.
First things rst, we popped into La Perle to register our
miniatures for the painting competition. We were also able
to catch up with a couple of friends whilst we examined
some of the models already on show, including some
excellent pieces on the display table.
Having booked our dinner for later in the day we popped
over to Patriot Games to check out the activities on offer.
The staff at Patriot Games were really warm and welcoming - but not in the overbearing way of some games shops
- and we spent an enjoyable, and nostalgic, time looking
through their vast selection of games & supplements, from
RPGs to board games, and from fantasy to sci- to historical with everything in between.
A little lighter in the wallet we were welcomed by the IMP
organisers who let us know what was happening in the
different areas and when it would take place. We also received our goody bags which included some nice gures,
as well as a couple of snacks for later on.
tremendously. This was one of several display/participation games available including a WW1 air warfare battle
and a couple of skirmish games. All the people putting
these on were more than willing to discuss their games
and answer questions from newcomers and experienced
generals alike, and to discuss gaming as well as other gaming systems.
In the basement my daughter and I got involved in some
of the tutorials on offer. Unfortunately we had missed the
realistic rock painting workshop but we had a great deal of
fun with the blood & gore and foliage basing workshops.
Not only were these of use and interest to me as a miniature painter, but they were very enjoyable for my 10 year
old daughter and kept her occupied for most of our time
at Patriot Games.
Immediately on arrival my son got stuck into an English

Civil War demonstration game, organised by James, and
enjoyed his rst taste of historical wargaming
34
For me the highlights of the day were: rstly chatting

about painting and gaming with some wonderful and
like-minded people as well as meeting friends from
the online community and secondly spending the
day, as a family, at a painting & gaming event where
we all enjoyed our time regardless of age or interests.
On a personal note I would like to thank the staff at
Patriot Games and La Perle, for providing the venues,
as well as all the participants for helping make a great
event. Most of all I would like to thank the organisers
and helpers for their hard work, warm welcome and
for making the event so enjoyable, not only for myself
but for all the members of my family.
The whole event had a wonderfully, friendly atmosphere and I would recommend anyone in the area,
or from further aeld, to attend. Would we attend IMP
again? You bet
My wife, who is neither a painter nor a gamer, enjoyed

looking round Patriot Games and viewing the models
on show but having the city centre so close meant
she was never at a loose end, and she always had the
option of returning to La Perle for a relaxing cuppa
and a very reasonably priced cake. Whats more we
found a book shop next to La Perle that specialises in
sci- & fantasy novels and comics, as well as associated memorabilia (Ed that would be the Shefeld
Space Center).
Due to my poor eyesight I felt it best not to enter the

Iron Painter speed painting competition and instead
we sampled some of the cakes on offer at La Perle.
Having cast our votes for the public choice category
- using the IMP pens usefully provided in our goody
bags - we nally settled down and were joined by
the other participants for the judges to announce
the winners in the various categories of the painting
35
Community
competition. The standard of entries was very high in

all the categories with some truly amazing miniatures,
and praise must go to the worthy winners, particularly Dave Cawthorne. To cap a great day my son and
daughter took rst and second, respectively, in the
under 16s, or Implings, category.
Community
A Drink with Nick Kyme
Words: Peter Allison

Photography: Antonia Andrew
Nick: I am originally from a little village called Humberston, which is quite near to Grimsby. Its a bit like
Mordheim minus several comets, but with mutants
still roaming the streets (he says in jest...). There was
a tiny little hobby shop in Grimsby called D Hewings
that my brother used to go to, and one afternoon
he brought home a copy of Middle Earth Role Play. I
became intrigued by all the dice and rulebooks and
wondered what it was all about. So, I started doing a
bit of Middle Earth Role-playing and the Games Workshop stuff evolved from there.
A little later on, my brother also bought a copy of
Rogue Trader, and once theyd gured out the rules,
he and his mates would have a game. I remember
elaborately appointed gaming tables (the downstairs
dining table, to be precise) literally full of improvised
scenery taken from home-ware stores and pet shops.
Lets just say there were A LOT of aquarium plants and
other assorted mad stuff.
Having been exposed to this gaming phenomenon, it
didnt take me long to start making up my own game
rules. Mine, however, were based on the old Citadel
Combat Cards - essentially fantasy miniature Top
Trumps - which I used for statistics, and then built a
game system around them with the miniatures I had
collected.
Through hard work and determination - and refusing

to take no for an answer - Nick Kyme got a job working for Games Workshop as a staff writer on White
Dwarf, before later becoming the senior range editor
for Black Library. Through Black Library, but prior to
joining the team, Nick released his rst novel Back
from the Dead in 2006 to great reviews, and has since
written Grimblades,Oathbreaker, Honourkeeper
and Salamander, the latter being the rst in a trilogy.
Characterized by a focus on people rather than the
situation, Nicks writing refreshingly explores the human reaction, rather than having an emotionless plot.
My rst blister pack was a set of warrior knights,

which cost 2.00 for ve knights, and were multi-part
models with separate limbs and separate bodies
they were fantastic. From that point I was buying all sorts of random stuff, such as giant scorpions,
dwarfs, or a griffon. I suspect that a lot of my miniature choices were dictated by what I had on my
Combat Cards too. It wasnt until later on that I really
got into collecting Dwarfs, as they are my favourite
Warhammer army. I bought some Hammerers and
Longbeards, which were ve in a pack again, and it
was because I liked these miniatures that I decided to
build an army. It wasnt until the rst Warhammer Box
came out the one with the Elves and the Goblins
that I started to build proper armies and play proper
games.
Being a lm connoisseur, Nick owns a gargantuan

DVD collection that vies for territory with his books
and graphic novels. Nick can often be found pounding away on the keyboard to the latest indie bands or
lm soundtracks. I was surprised to learn that when
not writing or gaming, Nick is also a keen runner.
Pete: Have your tastes changed since you rst got into
gaming?
In April I was fortunate to have a drink with Nick Kyme

at Con-Quest gaming convention in Derby. Games
Workshop had been a key part of my introduction to
gaming over twenty years ago. I was keen to nd out
more about Nicks role in Games Workshop, writing,
and his thoughts on gaming.
Nick: I dont get to game as much as I used to. The

last game I played was the new Space Hulk, which
was brilliant, as it was just like the old Space Hulk but
with new miniatures. I like the adventure stuff too,
and after role-playing I got into Heroquest and Space
Crusade, and later Advanced Heroquest, so I suppose
they were my apprenticeship. I was always a fan of
Pete: Firstly, can you tell me what rst brought you

into gaming?
36
Community
dungeon-bashing, because they had a story and you

had characters which you could develop, and the
characters could go on these quests. These games
are an ongoing narrative, and the game doesnt end
when the mission ends, as you go onto the next
quest, which is probably why online role-playing is as
popular as it is.
Pete: What spurred you to nd a career within the
Gaming industry?
Nick: I had aspirations to be an illustrator, but realised
very quickly that I wasnt good enough as I had a
GCSE B in Art, and even that was generous. I was
never sure what I was going to do, except maybe
teaching or write. Ever since I was eleven I wanted to
write.
The only reason I applied was Paul Sawyer, White

Dwarf editor between 1997 and 2005, asked me to. As
Paul explained, he knew I had no layout design skills,
but felt I had the right mentality for Games Workshop.
If you have the right attitude and are the right person
for Games Workshop, they will nd you a role where
your talents are best employed, which is what happened with me.
Pete: What did you do on White Dwarf?
Nick: I did loads of things while I was with White
Dwarf, which is a great primer as you meet a lot of
people and mix with a lot of different departments.
Pete: What have been your highlights working for
Games Workshop?
Nick: I dont really have a dening moment at Games
Workshop. I have fond memories, such as my rst
Necromunda novel which was great. My rst published article in Citadel Journal, before I worked for
Games Workshop, was a piece for Warhammer Quest
called Escape from Hag Graef, which was a scenario
based on a short story by Chris Pramas called Mormacars Lament. I even received a certicate for that
ha, ha. Becoming involved in Mordheim at the early
stage of its development was really cool. The experience of working on White Dwarf with the writing staff
as the creative dynamic was amazing. I have a lot to
be thankful to Paul Sawyer for giving me a job in the
rst place and believing in me, as cheesy as that may
sound. I will always appreciate Paul for what he did.
In fact my time with White Dwarf was during a period
where Games Workshop was going through a silver
age and that was fantastic. The rst time I interviewed
Dan Abnett has got to be one of my highlights as this
man was, and still is, a legend to me.
Pete: How did you begin working for Games Workshop?

Nick: I was due to start my degree at university, when
Andy Jones, Legal and Licensing Head for Games
Workshop, phoned me up and offered a job, as my
name had come up. I turned his offer down and explained I was very attered, but wanted to have a degree so I had something to fall back on. I still worked
in the Games Workshop stores during my degree, but
three months after my degree had nished I had a job
as a layout designer. I didnt want to do that, but at
least it was a foot in the door. I do not think that being a part-timer at Games Workshop: Grimsby necessarily paved the way for me to join White Dwarf.
Pete: How did you meet Dan Abnett?

Nick: Guy Haley, then the editor of White Dwarf,
explained they were having Dan Abnett visit for a
milestone issue which would involve a feature on
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series has seen us break new ground and slip into the
mainstream. The core readership of Black Library has
always been a large Games Workshop fan base, but
we have met a lot of folks who just read our books;
they dont game or paint, but are still involved in the
universe through our books. Despite breaking this
new ground Black Library is still focussed on Games
Workshop, and there is a lot of strength in the purity
of that.
Pete: Where does your inspiration come from?
Nick: Inspiration comes from everywhere and everything youre exposed to. You denitely need to have a
commercial head upon your shoulders whenever you
are writing, there is always going to be that commercial consideration. What you have to do is to discover
in your remit what you have a passion for; otherwise
whatever you write is going to suffer because of that.
Pete: Last question, what do you see in the future for
both yourselves and for gaming?
Nick: Im quite happy doing what I am at the moment,
so it will be more of the same in working for Black
Library and developing new authors. Ill do a bit more
writing as well, although not as many as four books
a year, and seeing where the trilogy that began with
Salamander takes me.
him, and that I would be the one to interview him.

At the time I had a digital Dictaphone, and kept the
interview on my Dictaphone for years afterwards.
Pete: You now work for Black Library dont you?
Pete: Nick Kyme, thank you very much.

Nick: Working with the Black Library is great, and is
probably the best time I have ever experienced at
Games Workshop. I genuinely do love working for
Black Library, especially now that Im working with the
authors and being an author myself. Its great when
you have that feeling at the start of a project and are
both excited and have that mutual creative spark.
Pete: Has Games Workshop changed over time since
youve been there?
Nick: Black Library has changed a lot since I started
working there. We used to do everything and it is
only quite recently that we decided that Black Library
is about publishing stories and not making swords,
belt buckles, cards, or role-playing games. Black
Library is about novels and telling stories in different
mediums. This is why Black Library is not just novels,
but audio books too. I think Games Workshop has become more business minded, and perhaps in the past
four years it has even returned to its original values.
This is a niche business, focused on steady growth for
sustained longevity.
Pete: Has this focus on story-telling seen a growth in
Black Library?
Nick: I believe the popularity of the Horus Heresy
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What are the most important parts of any image?
My name is Diego de Almeida, and Im 25 years old.

Im a painter, designer and illustrator and I live in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil. I received my Bachelors Degree in
Traditional Painting at School of Fine Arts. Nowdays
Im a masters student at Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro where Im developing a piece of research
about the use of visual arts, to propagation of science
teaching.
When youre working with image creation, the artist is

faced with a series of formal questions to be resolved.
Given the complexity of these problems they are
divided into parts to be treated individually.
Each artist has a personal process work. Some get
organized colors, some with spots abstract organizing
the chiaroscuro of the eld, but currently I start by the
linear drawing, watching carefully and accentuating
the dynamics of it. But I believe that is not a matter of
importance but of choice. Anyway the other problems should also be addressed carefully.
How did you get interested in art?

I was always interested in art and I have drawing since
my childhood. However, during my teenage years I
couldnt imagine working with it professionally. It was
during the selection for university I met graduation
in Painting from the School of Fine Art. I entered in
the university and since then I have devoted myself
wholly to the study and production of visual arts,
especially painting.
Please tell us about your research

During my bachelors degree, my research was focused in the study of painting process developed in
Brazil at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth
century. To complement these research, I dedicated
many hours in the study of live model during all the
course as well the study by copy of the Brazilian Masters of nineteenth century in the academic museum
D. Joao VI. In the end of the course I presented my
nal project titled Investigation of the compositional
features in the painting.
What methods do you use in your work?

First start with a short study of the abstract areas of
grays. Then I work on linear drawing (I prefer to do in
traditional material, usually in my sketchbook). When
I paint, my thinking is essentially tonal, as in a charcoal drawing. I organize the colors within families of
grays that they represent, in the tonal range. Usually I
divided into two main areas - light and shadow - and
I remap the abstract design of these areas and then
unfolding the number of grays.
Currently my research has been devoted to the artistic production in digital media, wich has contributed
effectively to my masters project.
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Artist Showcase: Diego de Almeida
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What size/scale do you prefer to work at?
Who and what inuences you and your work?
I feel comfortable working in large formats, but this

causes great inconvenience at the time of transport.
My works by charcoal are in media 50x70 cm. My
digital paintings I always start in my sketchbook that
is slightly smaller than an A4.
Many are my inuences, during the graduation I had

the opportunity of studying with a live model professor who preached the study of art, by the great
masters of the past. Thus at rst moment I was inuenced by the Baroque masters such as Rembrandt,
Velasquez and Caravaggio and masters of the French
academy as William Bouguereau. I couldnt leave to
quote the great Brazilian masters of the end of 19th
century and beginning of 20th century, which directly
inuenced my work both traditional and digital: Victor Meirelles, Rodolfo Amoedo, Henrique Bernardelli,
Eliseu Visconti and Marques Jr.
Tell us about the character on the cover of issue 5,

The Faceless Warrior?
When I paint, I usually dont imagine a closed story to
characters or to scenarios. Of course I have a north,
but I think its important allow the viewers imagination actively participate in the construction of the
work, making him thus co-author (while watching) of
the piece
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Do you have a preferred genre - fantasy/historical
etc?
Fantasy, fantasy always !!!
Are you a gamer?
For a long time I played RPG and it inuenced directly
my work, but currently I havent time for anything
besides studying. I have slept little to keep my daily
hours of studys practice of painting and keep my
masters research.
Is there anyone you would like to work with/for in
the future?
I really would like to work with concept art for lm
and game industry in general.
Which artists do you nd exciting at the moment?
Nowadays there are many talented artists and I
appreciate the work of many, among them Tony
DiTerlizzi, Kekai Kotaki and Bobby Chiu and Justin
Sweet.
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Euro Militaire 2010
Words: Jason Hubbard

Photography: Jason Hubbard
This year was the rst time I visited Euro Militaire and
so I was quite excited about the prospect of attending. I even went as far as to paint a 54mm gure for
the painting competition. As I live in Shefeld it was
quite a long journey down, which was uneventful,
though there were the usual delays on the M25 etc.
So we nally arrived in Folkestone and at the show,
having found a parking space we headed over to the
show and handed in our entries.
Euro Militaire is a two day show aimed at modelers,

and hosts one of the largest miniature painting contests in the country which attracts entrants from all
over the UK and Europe. This year saw a jaw dropping
1000+ entrants to the competition.
The show wasnt as big as I expected, -for some

reason I assumed that this would be as big as Salute.
There were quite a few traders, but to be honest no
more than at a local show. Having said that, the traders that attended Euro dont generally attend other
shows in the UK. The likes of Pegaso and Andrea just
dont come over to the UK for any old show, which is
a big bonus for attending if the miniatures produced
by these guys oat your boat. For me they just dont dont get me wrong, theyre exceptionally nice gures,
but at 54mm scale they have no use, I cant game
with them. I do purchase the odd 54mm gure, but
not very often and Id already picked up a couple of
54mms earlier in the year to paint over the winter.
So the trade side of the show had little attraction
for me, and this showed in the amount I spent there,
which was under 30, which included two Osprey
books on the Late Roman Army. Most of the books
on sale at the show, were either WW2 or the subject
covered tanks, planes or some other wheeled vehicle.
The highlight of the show is the painting competition,
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the ticket, travel and accommodation costs either.

Personally I prefer to attend the South Cheshire Militaire Show, which is a lot closer to home. The painting
competition is the only redeeming feature of this
show, and is well worth a one day visit to view the
inspiring work on display, but two days is just one day
too much for me.
Overall I would say that this isnt the type of show Id

go to normally, and probably wouldnt go out of my
way to attend again. It just wasnt worth the cost of
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as the standard on display is breath-taking, and with

over 1000 entries this year there was plenty of eye
candy to look at. I was drawn to the historical section,
and in particular the armoured vehicles - there were
some impressive pieces, which has prompted me to
paint some armour over the next few months.
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Shefeld Kotei 2010:
Words: Jim Freeman
The Organisers Report

the program into a living experience for the players.
This, as you can imagine, can take a lot of effort and
planning.
The Shefeld Kotei took place on the weekend of
Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April 2010, but the
T.Os part began nine months earlier when AEG - the
creators and manufacturers of L5R - announced that
the application window for Kotei was open. As this
was the 15th Anniversary of the game, the applications should reect the signicance of this landmark
and offer the players something special and memorable - so no pressure there!
A great deal of time and effort went into the application and into nding the right venue. In previous
years when we had run the Kotei we had used a great
venue, but feedback had shown that players from
outside of Shefeld found it hard to nd and players
without transport found it hard to get to as it was out
of the city center .
Ultimately our team was nalised and a venue found,
and a successful application was put in.
The following months were lled with anticipation,
marketing, preparation and lots of advertising. Nine
months can pass amazingly quickly when you are
preparing for an event like this, and before we knew it
the day was upon us so, heres a report on the Shefeld Kotei from the TOs point of view...
Set in the Empire of Rokugan, Legend of the Five

Rings (L5R) is a world of heroic samurai, elemental
priests, and sharp-minded courtiers. The world has
two games based in it a Collectible Card Game
(CCG), and a role-playing game.
Sworn to one of nine Clans, each with its own unique
philosophy on warfare, players pit their wits against
their rivals for the glory of their daimyo and the
honour of their Clan. With an interactive storyline that
advances each week, every player can have an effect
on the shape of the game that they love. The decks
they build and the tournaments they win can change
the fortunes of their Clan, even the Empire itself.
April 17th 2010,

07:00
Alarm, snooze, alarm, realisation, leap out of bed
08:00
Arrive at the venue, tired but full of nervous tension
and excitement. The venue is all but set up, due to
having spent a few hours the night before bringing
stock, table numbers, printer, paper, etc from the shop
to the venue and advising the venue staff on how and
where to set out the tables and chairs.
Collectible Card Games breed competitive players,

but more than that, they breed passionate players. For
that reason every successful CCG has an organised
play program (OP), and every successful OP program
has a national tournament. So for a game that allows
its players to shape the both the world that the game
is set in and the cards within the game, the national
tournament has massive signicance, kudos, honour
and a voice in what happens next, not to mention a
tonne of prizes and two whole days of card playing
and good times.
The venue, by the way, was the Workstation on Paternoster Row in Shefeld city centre. It is part of the
Showroom Cinema complex, and is a fantastic choice
of venue, as not only is it light and roomy, but it has
a front wall that raises up, allowing lots of air in, and
gamer-related smells out. The venue had also allowed
every participant in the event to see any lm over the
weekend at concessionary rates.
An OP program is directed from the manufacturer but

is delivered by a Tournament Organiser (T.O.) and that
is where I come in. It is my job to add the esh to the
skeleton that the manufacturer provides, and to turn
A quick check that everything required is present and

correct, and we start to let the early arrivals - and the
late staff - in.
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Of course, doing this with the entire front wall of the

venue raised is a good way to frighten the natives.....
11.00
Round 1
We had allowed an hour for each round, which was 45
minutes for the round proper, plus a 10 min discussion phase. Essentially it is possible for the round to
end and no winner to have been determined, so the
purpose of the 10 minutes is for the players to come
to an agreement of who will claim the win. Generally
players will attempt to carry on playing - especially if
they think that it is to their advantage to do so - but
that is against the rules, and it is the Judge and the
T.Os job to stop that from happening.
As is normal, round one goes off without incident
and at time, as predicted, many players have to be
reminded that they are to stop playing and come to
a decision. The round ends on time and everyone is
happy. Well, except for those that lost, obviously.
09:30
Things are starting to get going, lots of people are
arriving and the numbers look good. 81 people are
required to make the event a top 16 cut, but for a very
long time it seems like we will have only 80 players,
which is disappointing as it means a top 8 cut rather
than the preferred top 16 fortunately, a few phone
calls to local players and some cajoling and bargaining gets us past the 81 mark in time to start. This
gives us the event that the players are looking for and
equally importantly it covers the costs of the event
and the large amount of prize support.
The difcult part of this day (from my perspective)

was over once the second round was under way, and
the rest of the rounds passed without notable event.
[Ok, so a round by round account would be really dull,
so in the interest of future readership Im not going
to inict that on you. We shall now fast forward to the
last round of the day]
Most events like this use what is called the Swiss

system, which is derived from chess tournaments of
old. Principally, every player plays a pre-determined
number of rounds without being knocked out, each
round after the rst, they are paired against an opponent who has the same or as near as is possible- record as they do, and then after all of the rounds have
been played the top x players are put into a straight
knockout to determine the overall winner. The x is
determined by the oor rules, as is the number of
rounds in the Swiss section.
End of round seven

At the close of play on the rst day a number of
things occur - rstly the top x players are announced
and their decks, or card lists of their decks, are collected in to make sure no alterations are made over night.
Secondly there is the Clan Council - the top scoring
player, in terms of most wins, representing each clan is
given a box of 48 booster packs of L5R and it is his job
to distribute the packs amongst the other representatives of his clan in the way that he decides to be most
tting.
Notably the event had the largest attendance of any

in the UK for some time, a nice tribute to the 15th anniversary.
10:30
Cue the opening ceremony and speeches.....
Traditionally - if a tradition can be made over two
previous years - we have had a member of the L5R
design team as a guest and it would be he that gave
the opening speeches, but this year we were without
special guests and the job of public speaking was
mine. Fortunately, having run events for a little over
8 years now, the prospect was less daunting that it
might otherwise be.
A longer held tradition in L5R is the Utz Banzai
which is where the T.O shouts Utz and all the players
shout Banzai at the top of their lungs, this is repeated three times and signals the end of the opening
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ceremony and the start of the event.
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There were ve entries, one of which was ten pages
long! So I had a few hours of reading and deliberating
ahead of me.
Day Two
Sunday 18th April
07:30
Alarm, groan, snooze, alarm, groan.
08:30
Arrive at the venue, very tired and let in the early and
eager top 16 players.
20:30
Close of Day.
It is over twelve hours since I arrived at the venue, and
it is just about time to go home. First we make sure
everything is secured and all of the players are sorted
out with everything they need for the evening and
something to do. Then I head off home, not to rest
and relax, but to read through the story deck - or Honour Event - entries.
The top 16 are to start at 09:30 and play the best of

three games in each round of a straight knockout. We
use best of three to illuminate players going through
on pure luck after all, having reached this point it
would be unfortunate to be eliminated because the
Fortune of Luck frowned upon you for a game.
Today is a slightly harder part of the T.Os job because at 10:30 we start a second event which will run
simultaneously with the main event. If that wasnt
enough to be concentrating on we are also running
Draft* events for players that drop out of the secondary event, known as the Steel Championships**, and
for those knocked out of the main event. Further to
that is the ongoing 15th anniversary event that allows
the players to use every stronghold*** ever printed all
joined together!
The interactive story part of L5R has determined that

just being good at playing the card game is not all
it takes to have an impact on the world of L5R, there
are other ways to have your say, and at Kotei the main
alternative to winning the event is to win the Honour
event. This years event revolved around submitting a
theme deck and playing that deck in the main event.
This can be as simple as choice of cards and as elaborate as a players imagination can create.
On top of this I needed to organise a charity rafe,

and sort out and label the entirety of the prize support so that the prize giving is smooth and as short
as it can be - because by then everyone is really very
tired.
[NICK - J, not sure how you want to handle these footnotes - I leave it for you to decide
*Draft is a format where players use cards from a limited card pool, generally three booster packs each.
**The Steel Championships named for the Steel City
and is a fairly prestigious event in its own right
***Strongholds are an integral part of the game; each
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clan has a limited number of strongholds that they

can use in a tournament legal environment. Each
has the vital statistics for the clans economy, starting honour level and military resilience as well as a
clan specic ability that distinguishes it from any and
every other stronghold]
So not too much to do...
Like a well oiled machine the Kotei team take the
tricky second day to conclusion without a single error
or mishap, keeping all of the players and the T.O very
happy.
18:00
The Get Out
Once all the prizes were given - 1440 booster packs,
2 trophies, 9 plastic katana, 1 plastic tetsubo, 1 plastic
cutlass, two gift certicates (one for $100 and one for
$50 on AEGs store), 8 complete sets of rare cards, 8
special honour counter tops, 1 playmat, 1 exclusive
honour counter of fu leng, 90 custom L5R ten-sided
dice, and a few other miscellaneous bits and bobs - it
was left for us to tidy everything up, and get everything back to the shop.
Around 17:30
The prize giving ceremony begins
18:30
Out
18:40
Unload the car at the shop, leaving everything in a
relatively tidy pile on the shop oor to tidy in the
morning.
There are prizes not only for the winner and those
that came close but for many varied reasons:
Furthest from home
Best costume
Most Honourable Player
Darwin Award for Most Stupid Mistake
Bubble - the player that nished 17th with the cut to
top x being 16. This is termed being on the bubble
And a special prize for most unbelievable activity,
which was won by a player who left at the end of
round six, having won 6 games, taking the gamble
that he would make top 16 with that record and then
travelling to London for a night out at a club with his
Girl and then travelling all the way back for a 09:30
start the next day!!
Honour Prize - for best story/theme deck
Top of Clan - a prize for each player that nished as
the highest representative of their clan at the end of
the tournament
Bottom of Clan - plastic katana for symbolic seppuku
for failing the clan
Placing - for nishing in x place all the way down to
24th
19:00
Go Home and collapse!!
And thats all there is to it.
Simple, really.
And, of course, the Trophy and a metric tonne of stuff

for
The Winner
Once wed done that for the main event, we had to
repeat it for the Steel Championship.
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A Gaming Groups Adventure

at Games Day USA 2010
Words & Photography: Mike Schaeffer
competition; pockets of the crowd roar a mighty

Waaaagghh! during an organized event; and so on.
There is just constant stimulus, all celebrating the
Games Workshop game settings and hobby.
Games Workshop held their Games Day in only one

city in North America this year, and I am lucky enough
to live only an hour away from the convention location in Baltimore. So I whipped up some enthusiasm
in my game group, and ve of us headed up there for
the spectacle.
This year was the rst time Ive seen a display showing
life-size props in an alien artifact display case.
Right away, we jumped into the spirit of the event and

posed for photos with the stern but accommodating
Space Marine who was guarding the door.
From there we wandered around to get our
Within 10 minutes, our gaming group already began

to splinter off, each person uncontrollably drawn
to an area of personal interest. I, for one, noticed a
display case full of beautiful miniatures, so I made a
beeline for that. Knowing that the Golden Demon
was on another oor, I relished the possibility that
I could closely examine miniatures without having
to compete for time in front of the display. One of
the lead sculptors for Games Workshop was there at
the station, presenting, along with his previous work,
the new models for the (then) forthcoming Island
of Blood set for Warhammer Fantasy. I had a chance
to chat with the sculptor - unfortunately, I forgot his
name - and he informed me that he leads a team
of 22 full-time sculptors! He explained to me that
Games Workshop hires about 2 sculptors a year, and
each one must undergo a 2-year training program. I
was shocked that they maintain such a large team of
full-time sculptors.
bearings and soak up the general atmosphere and

vibe. This was the fourth Games Day Ive attended,
and Games Workshop always does a good job building an energetic carnival atmosphere. The convention hall is decorated with banners; there are booths
showing props and displays; the crowd is peppered
with space marines, dark elves, and other-worldly
characters promoting themselves for the costume
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I have to admit, seeing the Griffon in person secured

for Games Workshop at least one more sale of the
Island of Blood set from me. Both the sculpt and the
paint job for the Griffon are gorgeous. I took detailed
photos so that I could duplicate the paint scheme.
Of course, Games Workshop brings many of their own

tables, some to play on and some only for display.
This last one features underground tunnels!
At another display case, I ogled models featuring

some inspiring examples of weathering techniques:
From the game tables, I made my way over to the

shopping area. Having followed the forums and
podcasts regarding the new direction that 8th Edition
Warhammer Fantasy was going, I was feeling the itch
to try it out. I never cared for the Warhammer rule
systems before, but I always loved the models, the
game settings, and the community enthusiasm. So I
hesitantly plunked down cash for some army books
and some new models.
Turns out that when I read through my Dark Elf army
book later in the week, I discovered that they sold me
the obsolete version of the book! Luckily, a Games
Workshop store is fairly accessible to me, and a redshirt there was kind enough to exchange the book
for the current one. While that was good service on
his part, I was shocked that Games Workshop had the
gumption to sell backlog inventory at the Games Day
store!
Continuing my tour around the area, I found the section where the clubs from the local area set up their
tables. Thats something interesting to me about
Games Day. While the Games Day tour is essentially
worldwide, providing a common experience for
people all over the globe, the club tables differentiate
each Games Day event with something that is unique
to each locale. Photographing all of the tables is one
of the activities I always look forward to.
But back to Games Day itself - Games Workshop offers

a variety of ways to spend your day there, ensuring
that youre never bored. Some of the paint-andtake activities are good deals, where you can build
a terrain piece or paint a miniature that you can
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keep. Then there are the painting competitions.

There are two speed-painting competitions. One is
a light-hearted affair, where the organizers impose
random obstacles on the contestants, like painting
while standing up or painting while wearing massive
mittens. The other contest is more serious. However,
there are still obstacles to overcome, like using dried
up paint, gunky brushes, and dim light!
Here is my result for the more serious speed-painting
contest. Everyone has one hour to paint a randomly
provided miniature. Im pretty pleased with my attempt, given the conditions. Unfortunately, I didnt
place in the round. I requested feedback from the
judge, and he said that the shading and midtones
were right-on, but the miniature needed more highlighting.
In another story of minor celebrity, one of my buddies pointed Miggedy Mack Martin out to me at the
Fantasy Flight Games booth. I recognized Mack as
the founder of the Dice Like Thunder podcast. I had
stopped listening to that podcast when Mack left the
show, so I didnt realize that Fantasy Flight hired Mack
as a games designer, and that he was responsible for
the Dark Heresy RPG!
With the excitement of a painting session under my

belt, I made my way to the Golden Demon Lounge
elsewhere in the Convention Center.
Here are a few of the entries that caught my eye. Im
a big fan of the Kroot family of models, so I was happy
to see a lot of attention given to them this year for
some reason. I think there were about three separate
entries featuring the Gnarloc, the beast of burden or
beast of war, produced by Forge World.
Mack personies the life arc that we all fantasize

about. As a kid, spend all your homework time playing Warhammer 40K, illustrating Warhammer 40K, and
reading Warhammer 40K novels. Continue the same
in college, while studying game design. Launch a
podcast sharing all your Warhammer 40K knowledge
with the world. Bring all that experience to a job
interview where all of that focus actually wins you a
job, and be hired by a game company to be a game
designer. Score.
I was admiring one of the models that had won a

Gold Medal, when, overhearing a side conversation,
I realized that the painter was standing right beside
me. So I took advantage of the opportunity to ask
him how he achieved his weather effects on the
custom base, to which he kindly explained his use
of a sponge as well as his rationale to go in a certain
direction of the color wheel. As it turned out, about
an hour later, this same gentleman was on the awards
stage lofting the Slayer Sword above his head! So
in this way, I learned that I had the good fortune to
obtain some personal instruction from Todd Swanson.
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buddies had the pleasure to describe his Dark Heresy

and Rogue Trader campaigns to one of the actual key
designers of the games, Sam Stewart!
These guys were so great to talk to. It was all we could
do to avoid coming across as google-eyed fanboys/
fangirls - I dont know if we succeeded! What a tremendous way to cap our day at Games Day!
Time for an amusing aside about Mack and the

Ultramarine movie. At the end of the convention, the
Fantasy Flight guys were catching up with
Alan Merrett, Games Workshop greybeard and the
IP Lead to whom they report. Mack was waxing cool,
suggesting to Alan that the true sign of success
for the Ultramarine movie is when they release the
RiffTrax for it, and, oh boy, is that going to rock! Alan
responds with an impassive, emotionless expression.
Hmm. Mack, perhaps a little ustered (but hiding it
very well) continues to explain that RiffTrax overdubs
movies with hilarious commentary, a la Mystery Science Theater 3000. Alan responds with an impassive,
emotionless expression. Mack decides to change the
subject.
If all of that celebrity hobnobbing and general gaming/painting goodness wasnt enough, the highlight
of the entire trip was when our gaming group invited
the team from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) to go to
dinner with us at Phillips Seafood at the Inner Harbor.
Which they accepted to our delight!
So we enjoyed conversing with Ross Watson, Sam
Stewart, Mack Martin, and Tim and Ron, whose last
names I cant recall . I spent most of my time talking
with Ross. I learned a little bit of his background and
career trajectory that led him to FFG, and we reminisced about old games from the 80s. We debated
the potential value of a skirmish game for Games
Workshop, and we talked about the product development lifecycle process at FFG. One of my gaming
53
Community
Heres a picture of Mack and I cramping the style of a

Sister of Battle.
Community
Games Day UK 2010
Words : Jason Hubbard

Photography: Shane McElligott
Well, it was that time of the year again - Games Day

UK was upon us. I had nished my entry for Golden
Demon, Id decided this year to only enter one category, which was Lord of the Rings. I had painted Sam and
Bill the pony. The trip down was in the pimp mobile,
and for those who havent seen Kys mini bus, then
check out the website. This year he had some new
interior lighting, a disco type light, which he switched
on to show us all, and amused we were.
So we arrived well in time around 8 oclock, and
started the day in the Golden Demon queue. This year
the queue seemed a lot smaller, with far fewer people
entering Golden Demon. Once inside I did notice that
a lot of people hadnt bothered to collect Golden
Demon entry tickets and seemed to use the queue to
get in early.
The lack of a big release this year made the ginormous sales area seem inated in size, and without any
show deals it made me question whether Games Day
has turned into a gloried sales event or not. Games
Day should be about the hobby, with the focus on
painting, gaming and scenery construction, not selling stuff - thats what the stores and website are for.
This had an affect on the number of entrants into the

competition, with a signicant reduction in models
in the cases. In fact, as I wandered around the show
it seemed there were far fewer people attending this
year then at previous Games Days.
My wandering ended up at the Forge World display

and my eye was caught by the Warhammer Forge
stand and its pretty resin. I was rewarded for my efforts pushing through the crowds and managed to
get to all the display cabinets, and as I looked closer I
started to drool like Homer Simpson, with the Marienburg Land ship in particular screaming out at me
- yes, I do want one (Ed - Shame about that miniature
buying ban). Im pretty excited by this turn of events
- Forge world have always produced some pretty
spectacular stuff for 40K, so we should see some really
cool items coming from Warhammer Forge. It was the
part of the show I heard most discussed on the day
- usually with bright eyes and a terried wallet.
My rst stop of the day were to speak to a few

members of the Design Studio that I know and have
a good chat and catch up, as we no longer live near
each other. The studio team, along with the painting competition lled one hall. The Eavy Metal team
spent the day giving tips and painting advice to the
people who had brought their work in to show them.
There were also writers, sculptors, game designers
and members of the manufacturing team to talk to.
Even at the end of the day they were still smiling and
brought a positive vibe to the event.
As I was wandering around I started to notice that the
hobby participation areas had become smaller, and
that the sale areas were bigger this year. This trend
has been apparent over the past few years, but I felt
this time it was too much. Where there is usually a hall
lled with fabulous gaming tables there was only a
handful.
This new venture certainly looks like it could revitalise

Warhammer, as the books will cover subjects that studio cant, such as campaigns in which Chaos over runs
the Empire, not to mention background books for
parts of the old World, such as Araby, Norsca, Cathay
and every other part of the world map not covered
by the main studio. This is an area that I have felt has
been lacking for sometime. The Lustria book was a
step in the right direction, but with nothing since I
was concerned wed never get to see the far reaches
of the Warhammer World.
Despite being reduced in size, the conversion competition table and the scenery building areas were
packed all day, and with the number of ladies carrying the hand made scenery around the plan was
clearly to get mum to carry it. These areas are always
dominated by the younger attendees, and I was sorry
to see them be less prominent this year as they help
promote the hobby and get people actively involved
on the day.
I was disappointed to not nd Warhammer Historical anywhere, but maybe I missed them. This was
a shame as I was hoping to pick up a couple of the
books, Shieldwall in particular.
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Community
Britannica, as well as Rune Keppel - who my other
half had a quick chat with - along with a host of other
painters, many of whom picked up nalist pins and
even Demons later in the day.
It was certainly a fun way to spend my lunch break,
although the price of a drink at the hotel was a bit of
a shock. How much? (Ed- Too much, apparently.....)
I wandered back over to the show once the meet up
had nished and headed over to pick up my Golden
Demon entry. As it was handed back I noticed a massive chip on the miniature, which wasnt there when
I handed it in. I remarked about this to guy handing over to me and he just smiled and shrugged his
shoulders - I was slightly miffed. Yes, I know its not a
Demon-winning entry, but I had spent time and effort
on the piece, so expected those handling the miniature to do so with care and respect, and not to drop
it. I understand that accidents happen, but it left me a
bit sore to say the least.
This year saw the anticipated Space Marine movie

showcasing a new trailer - the queue was huge, with
lots of eager folk desperate to get a look. I decided
that Id try later on when hopefully the queue would
have reduced in size some what, but I never did manage to get a look at the trailer, though fortunately Ive
seen it since. It looks like this may be a pretty good
lm, and Ill try to get hold of a copy when its released.
So, as lunchtime approached, I wandered over to the
Plaza hotel and attended the painters meet up. This
is where painters from all over the world who are
attending the Games Day meet up to share tips and
ideas, and generally chat about the hobby of painting
small miniatures. Some of the notables in attendance
were Ben Jarvis, who was last years Slayer Sword winner, and is one of the founders of Platoon
Overall I was disappointed with this years show, it

seemed to me that selling products was give preference over hobby participation - which may be a sign
of how the economy is affecting the business. At past
shows there has always been a buzz, a sort of excited
feeling amongst the crowd, but this year I didnt get
that feeling.
This has prompted me to make the decision that I
wont be attending next years Games Day. Ive been
attending the shows for a number of years and
have always looked forward to the next show with
anticipation, but this year I left with a bad taste in
my mouth and feeling very disappointed. It wasnt
a showcase for the hobby, and it wasnt a day to
showcase the world of gaming - it was a gloried
day of selling and that was a shame. Ive always seen
Games Day as a showcase of what can be done at a
wargames show, but this year it felt like a poorly
constructed corporate sales event.
55
Tutorials
The Application of
Paint
Words & Photography: David Heatheld
This tutorial concerns the application of paint and

does not deal in depth with colour theory. There are
many articles available on the subject and it would
take a whole book to explain the use of colour.
Stage 1
Before we begin a quick word on preparation. All

mould lines and ash should be removed, this can
be done with a scalpel, le, wire wool or sand paper.
The last two in that list can also be used to smooth off
larger areas that will require smooth blends such as
cloaks and large metal surfaces.
Undercoating is a personal preference but the choice
you make can affect the end result. A black undercoat
lends itself to clean lines and a sharp contrast - often
described as the Eavy Metal style - but will leave you
with slightly dulled colours. A white undercoat gives
more vibrant colours and a generally smoother nish but is tricky to master. A grey undercoat will give
somewhere in between the two, it is easy to cover,
gives a smooth nish and has the advantage of giving
more natural looking colours and being easier to view
while painting.
For the purposes of this tutorial I have undercoated the miniature a very light grey (Tamiya
light grey) which will show the colours and techniques better than a darker undercoat.
56
Stage 4
After spraying the model with several light

coats I painted the difcult to reach areas of his
leather clothing. This was done before attaching
him to the base as these areas became unreachable with a brush. The miniature was pinned
with a long piece of paperclip which goes right
through the base in order to create a sturdy join
between the model and all the elements of the
base.
This next image shows paint that has been applied either too thick or without proper mixing
on the pallet. Once a layer like this is applied
you will never regain a smooth surface to paint
on and the end result will be affected.
So the paint should go on smooth and evenly
and be slightly transparent. It is also important
not to overload your brush or you will end up
with large areas of pooled paint which will ll
details and affect the following layers.
These layers should be repeated until a homogeneous nish has been achieved. Each layer
needs to be painted in a different direction to
the last with large clean strokes. This is very
important as when you make a brush stroke the
paint is laid down in a certain way.
Stage 3
The paint is generally pushed along in the direction of the stroke which as we will see later can
be made to work in our favour. At the end of the
stroke the brush leaves behind a larger amount
of paint than at the start. Therefore if we keep
the brush strokes in the same direction we will
end up with a large deposit of paint at the point
where the stroke ends. This will quickly build up
and leave an ugly clump and stroke mark.
Now you can begin applying colour. There are

several things you need to know about how the
paints work before applying it. Acrylic paints,
such as the ones used for miniature painting,
are a suspension of pigment in several other
liquids that help give each paint its own qualities. These qualities vary from paint to paint and
so it is useless giving you a description of how
thin your paints should be as each one will vary.
Instead I will show you the quality you are looking for when applying said paint.
It is also important as you are crisscrossing

the strokes which lls the gaps left by the last
stroke and creates an even, solid mesh of pigment across the surface of the model.
Here the paint is too thin, it is not adhering to

the surface of the miniature and is breaking up.
57
Tutorials
Stage 2
Tutorials
Stage 5 Here is a step by step of 4 layers applied

to the skin using this technique.
Stage 6
Here I begin with a very careful shade. I am trying to avoid using too dark a colour as I want to
create a blend by using the transparent quality
of the thinned paint. Here is the paint on my
palette.
The palette I use is a wet palette which some
people believe is a bit of an extravagance but is
in fact a necessity and will improve your technique and painting times tremendously.
Now you want to use those brush strokes to
create a blend. Begin with the brush at a point
where you want the blend to begin and move it
toward the area you want to be darkest. This will
create a natural blend from the light to the dark
area and can be further facilitated by stretching
the edge of the paint with a clean moist brush
before it dries or applying the previous colour
very thinly to the edge of the blend once dry to
help disguise the edges of the two colours.
Then another layer is added starting slightly
further down into the shaded area with a darker
colour paint using the same technique and
nally I add some purple to the mix to create a
recessive area and begin adding some tone to
the skin.
Next we begin adding light and dark areas to

the model to give it contrast and volume. I usually work by adding some shade then highlights
then further shade before adding the nal
highlights and glazes. This allows me to see how
much contrast is needed at each step without
going to dark straight away and having to balance this with very bright highlights.
58
Stage 8
Now that you have highlighted and shaded an

area it may look a little bland. This is because in
real life light shows up slightly different tones
and colours that may be reected from lower
layers (veins under the skin), be reected from
another object (metals reecting light) or may
simply be stains or discrepancies on the surface.
To display these effects on the miniature we use
glazes. The use of these glazes is twofold. First
they can help to further disguise blends and
smooth the surface. Secondly they can be used
to break up large areas of colour and create areas of interest that draw the eye to certain areas
when viewing the model.
For the next part I have moved to an area of the

model that is easier to demonstrate the steps
on. It concerns the highlighting of the model.
After deciding where to place your highlights
(usually opposite the shaded areas) you must
begin to highlight in the same manner that we
applied shade. By this I mean in several stages
using thin coats and using brush strokes to
move the pigment towards the lightest areas.
On my Dwarf the mask was one such area that

needed treatment. I used glazes of red and
purple to help facilitate blends and break up
the surface of the leather. These were concentrated in certain areas particularly the purple
which is a recessive colour and so was conned
to the shaded areas. Secondly I used a pale blue
around the eyes to give the effect of the light
reecting from the metal onto the leather and
also to draw the eye of the viewer towards the
details of the eye.
Here you can see the application of highlights

on the beard. This was rst treated as per the
last two steps with several coats of grey and
several applications of brown tending toward
the darker areas.
The whiskers were then lightened back up to
a light grey with two applications treating the
area with global lighting (all raised areas are
highlighted) the white was applied again in
two thin layers tending towards where the light
source was coming from.
The image below shows the consistency of the

paints on my pallet but it must also be noted
that only a very small amount is needed on the
brush else you will end up with paint gathering
in recessed areas of the model. It is better to apply these glazes in several layers and the point
of them is that they remain transparent and
simply tint the colour below.
59
Tutorials
Stage 7
Tutorials
Stage 9
Metallics and Wood

Now to demonstrate these techniques applied to a
few different surfaces. It was requested that I demonstrate metallics and wood.
When working on metal areas you have a choice between using metallic paints and painting non-metallic metals (NMM). In this tutorial I will demonstrate the
latter technique. I nd it much nicer to look at presentation-wise, that it ties the model together better and
I know that I spent hours wondering at the amazing
work of other artists when trying to learn this technique. It will also help you become a better painter as
you have no choice but to get the blends perfect!
I will show you a simple area of metal that requires
not too much blending back and forth, and is easy to
place reections on.
Stage 1
These images show the model before glazing

then with the rst layer of red applied to the
cheeks and nally worked with the complete
array of colours. These areas were neatened up
on the nal piece.
The surface was given a coat of a steel grey

colour before receiving several washes of black
concentrating on the area in shadow. In this case
that was the underside of the steel handle but
metal reects light differently and some research
into this can produce surprising results.
The metal was then returned to the original steel
colour. At this point it is important to mention
that contrast is of particular importance when
painting metal surfaces.
60
The light points on the tubes were painted with

less watered paint. This is usual for very ne details as getting a perfect blend is less important
than keeping the area neat. Below is my pallet
with the three colours used for this process and
another shot of them mixed while blending
between layers.
The highlights should be very stark and sudden and conned to a small area. This is not to
say they should not be well blended in fact the
opposite is true but almost all metals should end
with a stark spot or streak of white.
To this end I now use the grey colour and add
white to it highlighting the surface with thin
layers of much lighter grey to create a quick but
smooth blend concentrating on a small zone.
To nish spots of white are applied and a quick
glaze of off white used to blend these in
Stage 4
Metals can also be glazed; this is usually done

to give the effect of rust and dirt but can also
be used to show the effects of heat or other elements on a metal surface. Below is a rusty metal
axe that has been aged using oil paints and
pigment powders.
61
Tutorials
Stage 3
Stage 2
Tutorials
Stage 5
Then I washed the metals surrounding the
wood with thin black allowing some to leak into
the recessed of wood near to the metals. This
creates yet more contrast easily.
The wood is then returned to the original
brown before being given several coats of pale
beige. Once dry I return to my ink wash and
apply an even thinner coat to homogenise the
area and tint the colour of the wood slightly.
Then nal highlights are added using the beige
colour with a small amount of off white mixed
in. These highlights are restricted to smaller
areas.
This is a very simple way of painting metals
and there are lots more techniques that can
be found by looking at metallic surfaces, other
miniatures and even classical painters who
often use a technique called Sky Earth NMM.
I encourage you to go and nd these and try
them yourself as your painting and knowledge
of the subject will increase tremendously.
Stage 6
Next is wood. I tend to keep my wood bright

and vibrant as with the rest of the model and
make a feature of it rather than paint it drab
colours. I begin with a coat of a at dusty brown
colour and follow this up with several washes
of thinned dark chestnut ink. To make this I
mix a chestnut ink with a brown ink and water
it down slightly. This is then applied as a wash
with the brush slightly overloaded so that the
colour runs into the recessed detail of the wood.
Obviously you can concentrate this more to the
darker areas with each passage of ink.
62
Tutorials
Stage 7
red or too warm. I paint the details to counteract this and balance the whole miniature.
Colour theory can help with this to a point but if
you havent got a feel for colour you had better
develop one or your miniatures will end up a
mish-mash of paint.
Wood can be glazed with all sorts of colours
that occur naturally due to fungi plants and
minerals that end up on the wood. Most commonly I use green, purple and red. The picture
below shows another handle painted in a similar fashion and treated with some glazes.
So here he is, complete with a nice scenic base

ready to join the armies of Tir-Na-Bor or to simply sit on my desktop and get dusty.
Till next time, happy painting.
Stage 8
Now it is time to paint the details. The reasons I
leave these until last because they are often the
highest areas and so be difcult to paint around
while painting other surfaces. For this reason I
dont worry to much if they get some paint on
them up to this point. Also I can now use these
details to balance out the other colours.
As a general rule I tend to choose two or three
colours for the model, then each area may
have one or two complementary or contrasting colours in. I can use these colours initially to
manipulate the mood of the model, so that it is
dark and cold, or bright and warm, etc. I can also
use contrasting glazes in these areas to break
them up a bit. Once this is done however I may
nd that one side of the model looks a bit too
63
Tutorials
Flora Basing
Using real mosses and plants on your bases is a great
way to add interest to your miniatures.
Before you start youll need to prepare your plant
material to make sure they last - Brett Johnson from
WAMP explains how easy this is.
Tools and Materials needed for preparation:
Plants
Glycerin
Absorbent paper (ie kitchen roll)
Water
Small container
Words & Photography: Brett Johnson

& Rebecca Hubbard
This process solves the problem by replacing the lost
water with glycerin which acts like an embalming
uid and retains the plants structure.
I recommend you do this in advance of when you
need the plants. I do batches every now and then and
keep them in my bits box - some have been stored
for well over a year and are still as good as new. Some
plants wont take well to the process, and youll see
within 48 hours if its failed.
This technique can be used on any type of plant but

the results can vary. Generally the more woody the
plant is, the better. Normally once you cut a plant it
will begin to dry out, losing its water which in turn
destroys the structure.
Stage 1
Stage 2
Collect some plants! I like to use mosses as they

scale well and you can just pull them from the
rock but try anything, small herbs like thyme
can be good. For this tutorial I just popped in
the garden and grabbed some moss - it took me
about 1 minute and I was able to nd a good
variety.
For this stage you need some Glycerin. It is available over the counter from most chemists, as
its often used as a childrens medicine, and also
found in some supermarkets. It isnt harmful and
you dont need a bio-hazard suit to handle it. Its
also pretty cheap, the bottle pictured was about
1.20 and lasts for ages. You will also need a
small container and some water.
You need to mix 1 part Glycerin to 10 parts
water in the container. Give it a good stir so
its properly mixed. Next take your plants and
dip them into the mixture, make sure they are
well covered then remove and place on some
kitchen roll or newspaper. This will soak up the
excess.
Some plants you may want to turn over after an
hour to soak both sides. Then simply leave to
dry (overnight if possible). After 24 - 48 hours
any plants that didnt succeed the process will
have wilted so you should discard them; the rest
you are free to use.
64
Stage 4
Now that your plants are prepared you can use

them on the bases of your miniatures.
Using a cocktail stick, carefully apply PVA glue to

a single frond - you dont need a lot of glue, so
dont overload it.
You can take this a step further though, and

use certain mosses to create miniature owers,
as Rebecca Hubbard from Shefeld Irregulars
explains:
Stage 5
Tools and Materials needed for preparation:

PVA glue
Cocktail stick
Moss with fronds
Coloured ock
Some mosses have fronds that like miniature
reeds, and these are great for making simple
owers. Glue the moss to your base using PVA
or super glue.
Dip the glue covered ower into the coloured

ock to create ower blossoms.
Using different coloured ocks will add a bit of
variety and a splash of colour to any base.
65
Tutorials
Stage 3
Tutorials
Sculpting Robes in
Green Stuff
Words & Photography: Richard Sweet
During this article, Ill be showing you had to add a

loin cloth to a Games Workshop Sister of Battle - this
is just an example, but the techniques will help you
sculpt robes and cloth over many surfaces.
Stage 2
Stage 1
Once the base layer has completely dried, I begin to work on the top part of the loincloth rst.
I start by adding two thin lines of green stuff to
the outer most parts that fall across the thighs
and push the material inwards, going over them
repeatedly to make sure the material is thin and
both the lines and edges are smooth.
At this stage I lay out a rough base for the
sisters loin cloth, so that Ill have a solid base
to work with and can shape it when I come to
sculpting it without having to do it separately. I
deliberately havent sculpted anything around
the top of her thighs - theres little point as this
will be hidden by cloth.
Stage 3
Due to the way the loin cloth is being pushed

together there will a few natural raised areas
in the center of it, both folds at the top and the
bottom. I add two small blobs of green stuff
at the very top and very bottom and push the
material into shape, once again making sure I
smooth out the joins between the green stuff
by rubbing over them with a metal pick.
66
I add another layer of green stuff down the center, making it slightly thicker at the top and the
bottom - this will allow me more exibility with
the folds and shapes
At this stage I move on to the rear of her loincloth, as with the top part I create a base layer to
apply the detail layer over the top of. I let it dry
completely and cut away any parts that are too
thick.
This is the nal layer for the loincloth on this

side, I had a look at some stock photos and
some miniatures to get more of an idea of how
the loin cloth might be shaped by the wind and
the motion of kicking off the metal girder. From
these references I then add some additional
folds making sure they are more pronounced
towards the bottom of the cloth where it has
most of its exibility and movement.
Stage 5
A few Dos & Donts
One thing I would always advise with sculpting is to
mix very small amounts at a time, you never know how
long you could be working on one area. It could well
take much longer than you think and by the time youre
nished the rest of the green stuff could be too hard to
stick to the green.
Dont get carried away with the amount of green stuff
you need for an area. Typically I only ever apply half of
what I think I need to the model, even on larger areas
like robes and cloth - if you add too much, you end
up having to remove a lot of it as well as ruining what
youve already done.
As with the front loincloth I start in the same

way, two thin lines of green stuff down each
side of the cloth and then push the material in,
towards each other, while constantly checking
both the consistency of the lines at the edges
and the texture.
Dont be afraid to spend a lot of time on one area even

if its not particularly detailed - if something about it
doesnt feel right to you when you leave it then it never
will feel right .
Dont be afraid to try new styles to sculpt the same
thing. A lot of sculpting is about problem solving, as you
look at something you need to sculpt and your mind
begins to think of different ways to make the same
object.
67
Tutorials
Stage 6
Stage 4
Tutorials
Step-by-step: Nanny
Ogg on Broom
I suppose that, like so many other miniature painters,
I always get a thrill of anticipation when I get asked
to paint up a model for someone else, especially as in
this case when I get asked if I can do it in a week. So
after the automatic Eeek and Are you kidding me?
mental responses, and being the gure-slut that I am,
it took me all of 0.00357 microseconds to say Yes, of
course, Id be delighted.
Words & Photography: Mike Dodds
So after emailing all the arrangements, what arrived

in a nice neat padded envelope on the Tuesday was
Micro Art Studios Nanny Ogg on Broom. (D02700)
Stage 3
Stage 1
So on to the review: The miniature comes as

four pieces, including the plastic base - Nanny
Ogg herself, the support stand and the cast
base in metal. Nanny herself sits astride her
broomstick, legs akimbo playing a banjo, which
in this instance had the neck severely bent
backwards. This was straightened with a steel
rule pressed against the back of the neck and
gentle pressure.
There had been a section of ash on the rear of

the hat but this had been removed prior to my
receipt. However, that removal had left a serious
gouge in the creases of the cloak, so coupled
with the pitting I was left with little choice but
to work some green stuff to replace that and a
couple of other dings.
Stage 2
Close inspection of the mini showed several

areas of ash as well as an area of pitting. That
aw being on the rear of Nannys hat wasnt
too much of a problem, but the ash was in
some difcult places to deal with. It appears as
if this mini had been cast in a mould consisting
of three or four sections. Areas affected by the
ash were the edges of the cloak and over the
shoulders. Im fortunate in that a few years ago
I discovered a Micro chisel on sale in Historex
Agents store, this has several blades between 1
and 2 millimetres wide which with gentle pressure removes most ash, plastic or metal.
68
Stage 5
While the green stuff was curing I turned my

attention to the base and stand assembly - fortunately, neither one had any ash or moulding
aws. The cast base has a tab designed to t
into the slot of the plastic base so that was a
quick hit with superglue and in place in a seconds. Over to the stand, this had a small stub of
excess metal which a gentle pass or two with a
ne le removed. I tested the stands best t and
then it too was given a touch of glue and was in
place. There were tiny gaps around the bottom
of the stand and the base but green stuff and
a little bit of coaxing with a sculpting tool (or
three) and the gaps were lled. Nanny was then
left overnight for the green stuff to fully cure.
Somewhere around now I discovered that the

tab on the cast base is actually deeper than the
plastic base and the gure was left unstable. So
once the primer was dry it was back to the paint
room and mark the excess on the tab then pry
off the base and tidy up.
Onto the painting, with Nanny Ogg being so
well depicted in Paul Kidbys illustrations to
Terry Pratchetts books I had to follow a more
cartoonish version of painting. So I bypassed
my normal skin recipe and went with manufactured skin tone colours.
In the majority I use Vallejo Model Colours, having come to prefer their behaviour, so Ill list the
Skin Tones here but the rest of the colours Ill list
at the end.
Next day was the nal assembly and Nanny was

xed to the stand using strong slower drying
superglue, which gives a better bond. It is such a
slow glue that getting it out of the bottle is like
getting a teenager out of bed, but it has a grip
like a limpet on a rock face.
Base colour: 036 Beige Red.

First Highlight Colour: 017 Basic Skintone
Second Highlight colour: Light Flesh (Not sure if
Vallejo make this any more)
Darkening and Mouth: Vallejo Game Colour
Dark Flesh.
Then it was down to the garage to be treated to

a gentle dose of Tamiya Fine White Primer.
69
Tutorials
Stage 4
Tutorials
Stage 6
Stage 8
About here I realised there was something

wrong with one of her legs, in fact it had a serious crack in it. Not wanting to risk fracturing it
by poking green stuff in I opted to dig out the
Ultra Fast Quick Grip PVA I use for gluing bases.
This I applied with a Brush carefully pushing the
glue into the crack, and left to set overnight.
Stage 7
The base was completed by painting in the

stones, with various colours and then a dilute
wash of Devlan Mud. Leaves were picked out,
as was the Flower on the stand - a lovely bit of
sculpting there - which was given thin washes
of dark red.
The voluminous bloomers were gone over with
a couple of coats of white paint, then a dilute
coat of Ivory to take out the starkness. I then
freehanded in the Red stripes and nished off
the boots.
Next up for painting was Greebo and the cloak.

Followed by the packs and bottle, strapped
underneath the broom.
I worked on the banjo next and then did the
work on both the base and broomstick.
70
The face is a delight, showing a superb Joie De Vivre. Ok the broom handle does look a bit Phallic, but hey its a
fun model.
Its not a miniature for someone to start out from scratch with, but for a collector/painter its a good one to work
on. Overall if I were to give this a score Id say 8/10.
Face
Packs and Bottle
Beige Red
Basic Skintone
Light Flesh
Dark Flesh
Ochre Brown
English Uniform
Burnt Umber
Iraqi Sand
Cork brown
Base
Cork Brown
Chocolate Brown
Burnt Umber
Luftwaffe Camo Green
Blue Grey
Neutral Grey
English Uniform
Ivory
Dark Red
Dress
Prussian Blue
Dark Prussian Blue
Grey Blue
Deep sky blue
Cloak and hat
Dark Grey
Black Grey
Neutral Grey
Black
Black Glaze
Shoes and Bloomer

stripes
Red
Dark red
Burnt Cadmium Red
Bloody Red
71
Tutorials
Overall shes a pleasant gure to paint, with no massive issues to have to work around; the detail is sharp
enough to make the painting easy but not cluttered with extraneous bits.
Tutorials
Gradients
Words & Photography: Rebecca Hubbard
If you want to improve your highlighting and shading using gradients can help.
Many people use bands of colour side by side to indicate a change in shade, and while this can be effective, the result is never a smooth transition, its easy to see where one colour stops and another starts.
Gradients are a way of creating smoother transitions. By layering colours over one another in a way that you
can still see the colour underneath you can create a subtler effect - and its very easy to do.
In my example I have used Citadel paint colours, but you can use whatever brand you have available.
Fabric, such as a cloak is a great way to practise as if its rippled it will have obvious points of shadow and light.
It can be helpful to pick out three pots of paint that are roughly your darkest, lightest and middle shades.
72
Paint the entire cloak in your middle shade colour, make sure its not looking patchy and the paint is not too
thick. Mix your paint with water on a tile or palette so you can see the consistency easily.
When you are ready to start shading, add some water to your shade colour until its slightly see-though on
your palette - but not some diluted it has become a wash. If your brush is too wet, wipe some off on a piece
of kitchen towel before you start painting.
Find an area that needs to be dark, and starting a little further away push the brush in the direction of the
darkest point. This will drag the paint, leaving a stroke that starts off nearly invisible and gets darker where
the colour needs to be strongest.
Build up the opacity in layers, by brushing over the same area multiple times - but not while the paint
is very wet.
The highlight gradient goes in the opposite direction. The paint should move towards where you want
it to be lightest. A good place to start your gradient is the same place you started your shading from so
that as one nishes, the other starts. In this example the starting point is the centre of the bar.
73
Tutorials
First, make sure your model has been primed. When youre practising it will be easier to see whats happening if you use a light coloured primer - such as a grey, rather than a black.
Tutorials
The middle is still pretty much the base colour, but gradients get stronger as they move out.
This only works if you move your brush in the direction you want the paint to be strongest - and wont work
with thick paint, as it will not create the transparency you need to see the base colour underneath.
The chart below details how I built up my colours, and there is a photo of a miniature where I practiced this
exact technique on the cloak.
74
Words & Photography: Jason Hubbard,

Rebecca Hubbard, Nick Johnson, William Ford,
Andy Mon, Willian Ford jnr, Guy Oxley , Scott
Radom & Nick Palfrey
Susan Sto-Helit
Jason Hubbard
Discworld Miniatures Review

Micro Arts studio
The Discworld Miniatures is a line of 30 mm scale,
cast metal miniatures from the Discworld fantasy
book series. All gurines are based on Paul Kidbys
Discworld artworks and consulted with Sir Terry
Pratchett personally. At this time there are 32 miniatures in the series. We plan to expand the range of
the miniatures constantly. Even now we have 3 new
gurines in the sculpting phase. Were always open to
new suggestions which characters from the Discworld we should produce next. If you have an idea
feel free to contact us on our forum or via Facebook.
I really like the Discworld range of miniatures by

Micro Arts, that I was quite pleased when I was given
Susan Sto-Helit, grand-daughter of Death, to paint.
My initial reaction was that this is a really nice sculpt
and the cast isnt too bad. While there was a mold line
running across her head which was a little tricky to
remove, it was a really excellent cast.
I looked at the painted version on-line and found that
most people had painted her in black. I wanted to be
slightly different in my approach and colour choice
for her, so I compromised and went with greys. She
is really easy model to paint, and I soon found I was
painting quite quickly. The only tricky piece of clothing to paint was her basque, but apart from that her
clothing was pretty straight forward. I also decided
that I wanted her scythe to be old and weather worn,
rather than shiny and new looking. So I painted a
damaged rust colour to the blade - the reason for
this was I wanted a scythe that looked like it had
been passed down to Susan by Death, passing on her
future legacy through Deaths old blade.
I enjoyed painting this model and I intend at a later
date to acquire the complete set of guards, as I
already have Vimes, though as yet I havent painted
him. I intend to place him on a cobblestone base (Ed
- The Streets of Ankh-Morpork?). The Discworld range
is well worth checking out, especially if youre a fan of
the books, these gures are excellent quality .
75
Reviews
The Bursar
Guy Oxley
This is one of collection of miniatures which represent the characters from Terry Pratchetts Discworld.
It comes as one piece with a 25mm round base, the
newer type seen with ranges from companies like
Wyrd.
The gure is a good copy of the illustrations from the
Discworld novels, and it captures the essence of the
books. The excellent sculpt and clean casting meant
there was only a small mould line round the gure.
This took about 15 minutes to clean up with a le and
knife, the curve of the hat made the underside a little
harder to do though.
Nanny Ogg
Willam Ford
I think the main difculty with this kind of famous

character is the decision whether to try and match
the gure to the book or not. If you decide to, as I did,
you are restricted in your creativity but the challenge
comes in making the character recognisable. So after
a little research the nished gure hopefully matches
Discworld acionados expectations.
Nanny Ogg comes in 2 pieces, the main body and her

left hand with broomstick, and a plain round slotta
type base. Like the rest of the range she is based on
the artwork of Paul Kidby so there is plenty of reference material for her.
The model had no ash at all and the mold lines were
minimal and easily cleaned up. One disappointment
was the amount of micro-pitting on many of the
surfaces and somesquashing to the left hand side of
her face.
Because of the detail the gure itself was a dream to

paint, and whether you base coat/wash/dry brush or
blend a decent result is easily achieved. Its a great
piece for display purposes and possibly for a comedic roleplay game (i.e., the Discworld extension for
GURPs).
The hand ts well into the arm and shouldnt require

pinning. For best results I would recommend a slip of
Milliput, or other ller, to cover the worst of the pitting. The piece is posed in a typical Nanny Ogg pose,
drink in hand, which is not at all frozen and captures
her character well.
A light undercoat went on very well and it was on to
painting. I used Vallejo Model Colour throughout on
this piece and used references from Discworld art
rather than the excellent pictures on the Micro Art
Studios website. The model does not come with the
cobbled base seen on the site but these are available
separately.
The Librarian
William Ford jnr
I personally love anything Pratchett so the gure
was too hard to resist. With the IMP Implings contest
coming up, I decided to use it for my entry into the
competition. The model is so characterful in its pose
and is a perfect representation of one of Paul Kidbys
artworks.
How good a cast this model is! The mould lines were
almost insignicant and in some
76
Although not too challenging the model has lots of

large areas to practice fur technique, it is basically fur,
skin and extras, although it is slightly less detailed on
one arm making it harder to detail. One interesting
point on the skin is what colour to do it? I decided on
a bluey-grey to contrast with the orange, in keeping
with Paul Kidbys illustration.
Overall I think this model really stands out in a crowd
of good Discworld minis from Micro Art Studios and
thoroughly deserves a good look.
The casting quality was decent. An acceptable

amount of mold lines though an odd choice was
made to put a mold line that ran down one of Rincewinds eyeballs. That was indeed a pain! The model
also needed some more attention in smoothing out
some of the larger areas as there are a few pitmarks
in the metal. I didnt bother on the version I painted
- Patience is for cowards! - but I really wished I had
taken the time.
Painting was a lot of fun. I opted for a muted earthy
look to the robes rather than the full colour glory
a wizard of any status should probably enjoy. My
thought was that this might be what Rincewind
looked like while staying in Four-Ecks after a while.
Also I was painting the miniature for a personal challenge over on the WAMP forum and the theme was
Look at my hat so I felt a more drab approach to the
mini might put focus onto the brightly painted hat.
Painting this model was tons of fun!
I really look forward to painting some more gures
from this range in the future. Nice work Micro Art!
Rincewind
Scott Radom
Like a lot of people out there I love the discworld
books a lot. Terry Pratchett has really kept me entertained over 30 novels with his story, settings, and
perhaps most importantly his characters. One of his
key characters is the hapless wizard Rincewind who
debuts in the very rst novel, The Colour of Magic.
This gure really captures the spirit of the character. I
was really drawn to the Why Me? look of his face and
the entire stance of the miniature with the stooped
shoulders and poor posture. The sculpt is based off
the ofcial Discworld art by Jack Kidby and I think
the sculptor Kul Asryk nailed it outta the park. I really
think this is a great example of taking a two dimensional piece of artwork and springing it into a three
dimensional work of art. I am still very impressed by
what Kul Asryk accomplished on this mini!
Magrat on Broom
Nick Palfrey
Ive read a lot of the Discworld books, many moons
ago when I was at primary school. Add to this the fact
that I have wanted to get hold of one of these miniatures for a while and I couldnt resist the opportunity
to review one of these for Irregular Magazine.
At rst glance its packaged much as most miniatures, in the blister packet, with the very handy foam
protection. The miniature itself was quite nice, the
was one major mold line, which was a bit irritating,
as it ran through the folds of the cape, through the
hair, and through the ddly folds of the long, baggy
77
Reviews
places non-existent. The white under coat went on

perfectly, unlike other metal models were I rst have
to wash of any excess release agent, so hats off to the
casters. I nally scratch built some detail to the base
to give the feeling from Paul Kidbys illustration and it
was on to painting.
Reviews
sleeves. Another niggle would be the parts. The

miniature came in four parts. The main model, half
an arm, the tree, which held the miniature up, and
a base insert. The arm was particularly hard to put
together. It is very small and, on my miniature at least,
didnt t very well which you can see in the pictures.
I had to carefully place it with a pair of tweezers, and
hold it there for a while. Another poor t was with the
twisty tree. It should t in nicely, and it really didnt - it
took me a while to gure out how it was meant to t
properly, and even then I wasnt quite sure if this was
right, but once it was glued and primed the join didnt
really show so this is all ne.
So when nally primed and cleaned the miniature
almost painted itself! It was great, even if I only had
a day to work on it - painting and write up done in
a day! The miniature is just as I like it, with nice at
areas, not over detailed just the necklace and little
bits in her hair.
The sound of the morning post landing on the mat

roused me, and after stumbling to the door, I spotted the tell-tale jiffy bag that signals that something
cool has arrived. Opening up the package reveals
two standard foam lined blister packs, and with the
distinct imagery of the Great Atuin adorning the
cardboard
So, to conclude - this is a very nice miniature, if you

take the time and arent in any rush in the assembly
stage, and the painting is great fun! I would certainly
like to get one or two (Nanny Ogg and Rincewind
take my fancy). So until I can next get out of my almost permanent lazy state, ciao.
backing, the products are instantly recognisable at a

glance. Pausing for only moment to explore the packs,
I got stuck in with the cleaning and prep work...
The metal is of a medium density which made trimming and ling easy, without it being so soft that you
risk damaging the model by going too far. Despite
some dubious placement, mould lines were reasonable and there was little to no shear between the
halves. They were not particularly clean however, with
ganky puddles of release agent that had been overenthusiastically applied by the caster. There was some
major lumping and pitting on many areas of both
gures, though thankfully nothing too bad that a milliput bath and a quick bit of green stuff work wouldnt
x. Pleasingly there was no ash, and only a couple of
vent worms in the expected places.
The character of Esme has been captured well, and
I can just imagine those hatpins being put to good
use! One slight disappointment though was that
Esme doesnt come with a sculpted base, whereas Flying Esme does. A minor niggle, and another one that a
bit of milliput work soon xed.
Esme Weatherwax
By Andy Mon
Detailing is good on both sculpts, as is to be expected

from a Kul Asyrk sculpt, though there were many
parts that were below par. Little lumps, sculpted deformities, and irregularities on Esmes face and other
small details, were made very apparent once undercoated, and so with a sigh the tools came out again.
Being somewhat of a Terry Pratchett fan, I couldnt

help but get rather excited by the prospect of being
sent some of Micro Art Studios Discworld miniatures
for review. As one of the dening characters of the
Discworld series, Granny Weatherwax has got to be
on everyones favourite list, and so I jumped at the
chance to give these miniatures the once over.
Overall neither mini was particularly fun to paint due

the the rough nature of the casting and the sculpting
inconsistencies, making edging, blends, and detail
78
all present and correct. One detail that caused a little

controversy was the fact that there are two knotholes
which are coincidentally in the right position to be a
pair of eyes, despite the Luggage being noted for not
being able to see. I dont see a problem with this, as
theyre not actual eyes, but some purists may make a
fuss.
Given I only had a week to work on him, it was nice
to have a gure that only needed ve areas working
on - wood, metal trim, teeth, legs and the scrap of
cloth. I used a mix of P3 and Vallejo Model Colours,
with Games Workshop Washes and Metallics to paint
him. There was no noticeable ash, and I didnt spot a
mold line when I was prepping him.
I was a little disappointed that the Luggage didnt
come with a sculpted base, as is shown on the pictures on the website - I feel that Micro Arts should
probably add a disclaimer to cover this. Either way, it
didnt spoil my enjoyment of painting the gure, and I
will be picking some more of them up in the future.
The Luggage
Nick Johnson
Paint and review a Micro Arts Studio Discworld gure? In a week? With my reputation? Well, Ill give it a
shot. With that, and a rummage through the bag of
goodies, I came away from the painting session with
a blister pack containing the Luggage, the travelling
chest that follows rst Twoower, then Rincewind, in
their adventures on the Disc.
Hes also the rst gure Ive painted that can double
as a nger puppet if youre careful - true story.....
The Luggage comes as a one piece sculpt, with a plain
30mm base. While the tongue of mahogany isnt on
display, the teeth, legs and a bit of someones robe are
79
Reviews
picking a real chore. I only had a couple of evenings

in which to get them nished, and in hindsight it
wouldve been nice to have allowed myself more time
for additional prep work and neatening up before
starting. Not that this should put off any Discworld
fans though, as they are both good characterisations
of Esme that would make ne additions to your cabinet. Seeing them on the shelf has certainly inspired
me to pick up some of my other Discworld favourites
from Micro Art Studios. Its just a shame that the overall quality and consistency didnt particularly impress
me.
Reviews
Hearts and Minds
Words: Dave Barker
ISAF in Afghanistan, Flying Lead Theatre

of War Book. Ganesha Games
the conict, with many terms and acronyms that I
didnt know being explained. The rules cover a wide
range of different features of the Afghanistan conict,
from military dog teams, talking to the locals through
interpreters and ISAF Rules of Engagement, through
improvised explosive devices, dickers (unarmed
Taliban observers) and the differences in the levels of
technology between ISAF and Taliban forces. Detailed
rules for the different types of weapons in use in the
conict are also provided as well as rules for more accurately using vehicles in this particular theatre.
hearts & minds

isaf in afghanistan
flying lead theatre of war book
Also introduced is the slightly ironically named Joys

of War game mechanic, not previously used in other
Ganesha Games systems, which are all based around
the same core success activation mechanic. I rather
like the way this works, providing an extra level of
tactical uncertainty into skirmishes without making
games suddenly unbalanced and impossible to win.
Fifteen different scenarios are detailed, which provides a nice variety of different engagements, as well
as guidance on turning a series of linked scenarios
into a campaign. This is more than I was expecting in
just a 50 page supplement such as this one, and this
is in addition to the breakdown of troop types from
which to select your forces and the usual excellent
cheat sheets that Ive come to expect from a Ganesha
Games product.
Rich Jones Surf Shack Productions

& Ganesha Games, 2010
I have always nd it difcult to know whether I should

even consider playing games set in wars which are
still ongoing, and Hearts and Minds is most certainly
a sourcebook that deals with games set in the ongoing conict in Afghanistan. I might have had more
qualms about this if it hadnt been recommended to
me by a friend who served in the British Army, who
also said that I should write this review. I am also
impressed that $2 from every copy sold is donated to
the charity Combat Stress
If you really dont like the idea of playing skirmish

games set in a modern, ongoing conict, then this
supplement really isnt for you. However, if the idea of
playing this type of game is something that appeals,
whether youre gaming with the excellent Flying Lead
rules or a different set of rules, then I would recommend this title for the background information and
getting a avour for the conict, as well as the excellent scenario ideas that it includes.
I am already familiar with the Flying Lead rules, which

this expansion is written for, having played several
games set in the rst half of the twentieth century
against our Editor. However, I was pleased to nd as
I began to read these rules that they begin with a
well written one-page introduction to the history of
Afghanistan and the Wests (especially Britains) past
involvement in the region, leading up to the elections
held in Afghanistan in 2005, although the rest of the
rules make no kind of distinction as to when a skirmish battle may take place, from Operation Enduring
Freedom, starting in October 2001 to the present day.
Hearts and Minds ISAF In Afghanistan, Flying Lead

Theatre of War Book, Rich Jones, Surf Shack Productions and Ganesha Games.
The rules set out in the book blend easily and naturally into the parts of the text that give a avour to
80
Word & Images : Peter Scholey
Tor Gaming
These are nice gures and very enjoyable to paint.
However they are a pain in the backside to put
together! I tried rst of all to straight super glue the
arms and heads onto the models, however there isnt
very much for the glue to bind to, and so then I tried
to build up a neck on the models with Green stuff,
and that didnt seem to work very well either. In the
end I had to pin the heads and arms on, and this has
left the models remarkably strong. However, there
does appear to be no necks on the models, and some
large gaps on the arms where they join. Also, the slots
dont go together very well, being either too narrow
or to wide, and so some creative gluing had to be
done.
market there is for these gures though. On the

whole, though, they are very nice models.
These gures suffer from the same problems as the
Grenadiers, however, in my opinion the extra little bits
of detail make them a little nicer to paint. The slots
arent right as with the grenadiers, and they are just as
awkward to put together, again requiring pinning.
I painted them in the same style as the grenadiers, except as these have Bicorns, I didnt do a grey dry brush
highlight. Instead, I just picked out certain parts of the
This really is the end of all the gripes, as the models

themselves paint up dead easily, I started with a
Tamiya black ink coating to bring about the detail for

the photos and then painted the jackets purple as
well as the cross-belts and trousers grey. I then put a
red highlight on the jackets, with a semi dry brushing technique to allow them to look slightly faded.
A similar approach with white onto the trousers and
cross-belts nished them off too. The Grenadier caps
I painted black and dry brushed with a light grey, and
used a metallic brassy paint by Daler Rowney for the
front and back plate. Their weapons seem to be largely metallic, so I left those with just the Tamiya black
ink on, and it looks quite effective I think. I painted
the cuffs yellow, the grenades black with a light grey
highlight and the backpack brown, all in a two tone
approach. Finally I painted the esh parts a light
brown to start with and then did a 3 stage highlight
with an off white yellowy-cream colour, to try and get
a good straw approach, which I am not entirely happy
with.
cap, and put a white edging round the top of them.

The muskets are worthy of mention, as they have
lovely detail, with what appears to be tape binding
round them, which makes them very fun and engaging to paint, trying to pick out the little bits. Similarly
they have picked out the grain on the wood as well.
Suffers from the same problems as the Grenadiers,
but I think the extra little bit of detail, makes these
nicer to paint.
There really is good detail on these gures, with

stitches and patches on the clothes and esh areas.
The very difcult assembly, coupled with an extremely niche range, makes me wonder how much of a
81
Reviews
Britanan Grenadiers & Troopers
Reviews
Hammers Slammers :
The Crucible
Words; Dave Barker
Recommendations are also given about where such

miniatures can be bought.
As a bit of a fan of the Hammers Slammers stories
before coming to this rule book, I found the information in the background section an interesting and
enjoyable addition to what I already knew, presented
in a different and more factual manner.
Ive not been able to nd time to playtest the rules
properly, but they read well with a multi-phase turn
sequence handling everything from off-table artillery
to infantry assaults in a unied manner although, as
one would hope from such rules, the main focus is of
course around combat between armoured vehicles. A
nice touch is an alternate turn sequence which allows
you to incorporate Molts - a particular type of alien
from of David Drakes stories - and their unique ability
to be able to teleport in and out of battle.
If I was to try and nd fault with this book then Id
have to point out that in places the layout does appear slightly cluttered in trying to cram so many nice
features onto each page of the book and that some of
the terminology from the rules section has crept into
the background section, meaning that some terms
appear before theyre really dened.
However, these small issues do not detract from what
really is a superb book and a worthy addition to the
Hammers Slammers material that is currently available. I can offer no higher praise than to say that the
Editors will have a ght on their hands if they want
the review copy back! And Ill be bringing powerguns
to the ght!
I rst became aware that this new Hammers Slammers title was being published when I was at the UK
Games Expo 2010 in Birmingham with my gaming
mate, Rob, and our two ve-year-olds. The Hammers
Slammers layout and demo game associated with this
book launch were the only thing there - apart from
the face painting - that really fascinated the kids. Rob
and I were really quite impressed too.
So after I was back home and telling Jason, one of our
editors, about the great looking game I was immediately asked to review it and Ive got to say up front
that I was as impressed with the book as I was with
the demo game at the UK Games Expo.
Hammers Slammers : The Crucible, John Treadaway

and John Lambshead, Pireme Publishing, ISBN 978-09547276-3-5
It is a lovely full page, full-colour, glossy hardback

packed from front to back with pictures, miniatures
and diagrams of various pieces of military hardware
or symbols of the military units in the Slammers
universe. Just about every page also has a quote from
one of the stories and this is all before the actual
content.
The book is primarily divided into two main sections:
the rst which gives details of the backgrounds and
equipment in use by military forces across the inhabited worlds; and the second part details rules that
can be used to re-create some of the battles from the
Hammers Slammers stories with suitable miniatures
in any scale from 6mm to 25mm.
82
Words: Nick Slonskyj

Photography: Osprey Books
lent feature of the Ancient and Medieval rule set and
are just as good in the Renaissance set. The overall
production quality is well up to the high standard set
by the previous publications.
I was recently handed a copy of the new Field of Glory

Renaissance wargames rules and asked to write a
review, a task which I was happy to undertake given
my liking for the Field of Glory Ancient and Medieval rules and my desire to nd a set of Renaissance
rules which I would actually enjoy playing. Together
with a copy of the rules, I was also given a copy of the
rst army list book; Wars of Religion, covering Western Europe 1610 1660, i.e. encompassing both the
English Civil War and the Thirty Years War.
The rules are, as the name suggests, aimed at recreating Renaissance warfare on the table top. They cover
a period which starts with the Great Italian Wars at
the close of the 15th Century and runs through to the
wars of the League of Augsburg, ending just before
the start of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701.
In Western Europe this period saw the rise of large
pike formations followed closely by a growing importance in rearms which initially complemented and
then supplanted the pikes so that by the close of the
period the number of pikes had been reduced to a
minimum and the majority of infantry were equipped
with muskets and plug bayonets.
The books are physically very similar to the current
Ancient and Medieval rules and army lists, the same
size, shape, binding, general layout and colour providing a very strong family resemblance, as well as a consistent product image. As is the case with the earlier
books, both the rules and the army lists are liberally
scattered with illustrations taken from various other
Osprey publications, combined with photographs of
relevant period wargames gures. Again, as with the
earlier book, the rules also include a large number of
diagrams to help understand some of the complexities described in the text. The diagrams are an excel-
The rules themselves are obviously built on the same

framework as the Ancient and Medieval rules, which
greatly aids in their assimilation by anyone who is
already familiar with these. The same turn structure
is employed with Impact, Manoeuvre, Shooting,
Melee and Joint Action phases and the same Points
of Advantage combat mechanism, with criteria more
appropriate to Renaissance instead of Ancient warfare. As with the earlier rule set, troops are classied
by Type, Armour, Quality and Combat Capabilities but
all of these differ from the classications used by the
earlier rules except, understandably, for quality which
remains as Poor, Average, Superior and Elite.
The Type, Armour and Capability classications differ from the Ancient rules and are more appropriate to the later era, so Type includes troops such as
Gendarmes and Cavaliers, while Capabilities include
Arquebus, Musket and Pistol, the latter being potentially available for Impact, Melee and/or Shooting
depending upon army list and points paid. Protected
is no longer an Armour class but is the term used to
describe mutually supporting stands of pike and shot
or mutually supporting stands of mounted troops
and commanded shot and confers defensive Points of
Advantage in certain circumstances.
It is a pleasure to report that the rules do cater for
specic Renaissance formations so that there is a
signicant amount of text devoted to describing
Tercios, pike Keils, Swedish Brigades and other Pike
and Shot formations. These formation rules appear to
have been well thought out and should satisfactorily
model the behaviour of the real thing on the table
top. I particularly like the mechanisms for modelling
the huge early Tercio formations (up to 18 stands
under Field of Glory) and believe that they are the
best attempt at it that I have ever seen in a set of
wargames rules.
The special formation rules go a long way to reinforcing the illusion that an actual Renaissance battle is
being modelled on the table top and this is further
aided by the rules for Divisions. Divisions are the
Renaissance equivalent of the Ancients Battle Lines,
i.e. a feature which allows multiple battle groups (the
Field of Glory term for a basic manoeuvre unit) to be
moved simultaneously and potentially multiple times
in a single turn. Unlike Battle Lines, the component
battle groups making up a Division must be arranged
83
Reviews
Field of Glory Renaissance
Reviews
and a starter army of about 600 points value drawn

from the list. The lists appear to be reasonable and
consistent with what I know of the armies involved.
The supporting text, as with the Ancient lists, is fairly
lightweight and will not add anything to the understanding of anyone who has done any independent
reading but is useful enough as an outline for the
more general reader.
As mentioned earlier, I have with the help of some
friends from the Shefeld Wargames Club, played a
couple of ECW games using armies drawn from the
army list book and largely based on the starter armies
listed. Both of these games went very well with, as
stated previously, some familiarity with the Ancient
rules proving to be very helpful in actually playing
these rules. Both games had the unquantiable feel
of how I would expect an actual ECW battle to resolve
and both games drew out the differences between
the two armies, the superior dash of the Royalist Cavaliers opposed to the steady discipline of the Roundhead Horse.
with some spacing between them which provides
the typical chequer board type army layout seen in
contemporary wood cuts and other illustrations from
the period.
For myself I think that this rule set and its supporting
army lists will nally provide me with an enjoyable
game which has the proper feel for the period. At the
very least I have been inspired to dig out my old Great
Italian Wars armies for the rst time in many years and
even start painting one or two additions. I have no
hesitation in recommending the books to anybody
with an interest in Renaissance wargaming.
One signicant difference between the Ancient and

Renaissance rules is in evaluating the effects of shooting. Both sets of Field of Glory rules use a Death Roll
to decide if a base should be removed after a battle
group has received hits from shooting or close combat, basically the target unit must roll greater than the
number of casualties to avoid losing a base. This die
roll is subject to modiers and where the casualties
are due to shooting the modier is plus two in the
Ancient rules, greatly reducing the number of bases
removed. In the Renaissance rules if the shooting is
mainly from rearms then the plus two is ignored, so
shooting attacks in general become far more lethal
where substantial number of rearms are present as
is the case with many armies in the period, particularly later in the period.
The increased lethality of repower may result in us
seeing more battle groups being destroyed through
excess casualties than is the case with the Ancient
rules, although this remains to be seen and has not
been the case in the two test games (both ECW encounters) which I have played to date. In any case the
additional respect which must be given to rearms
is in accord with my understanding of how a Renaissance battle should unfold.
The supporting army list book follows similar lines
to those already seen for the Ancient and Medieval
army lists; the book includes over 20 armies and
for each one has some supporting text, an army list
84
Words & Images: Peter Scholey
Urban Construct
I was volunteered to do an article for my friend Dave

Maguire who owns Urban Construct, and he sent me
this terrain piece.
My rst impression of the piece was that it was solid

and chunky, so its practical and unlikely to break. The
sandbags themselves had nice detailing and pattern,
so the piece would dry brush nicely and I thought
that the footprints in the mud behind were a nice little touch. I wasnt personally bothered by the fact that
there were 3 German hand grenades on the piece,
but I thought that it might put others off because it
reduces how generic the terrain is.
I started off with a simple dark brown base coat over
most of the bunker, leaving the edges so I could easily
soil inside the bags, and spilling out. The tops of the
sandbags were then also slightly highlighted with a
yellow ochre-off white mix, to try and make it look a
bit sun-bleached and worn.
Finally I painted round the base, and highlighted with
a light brown, and then painted the stick grenades
and all was done.
On the whole I thought that the piece was very nice
indeed. It is very cheap at only 4.35, and I certainly
intend to get a couple more for my WW2 skirmish
games. The detailing on the sandbags is fantastic,
allowing for very easy dry brushing. There is scope
for a bit of home-adjustment as well, if you wanted to
glue wooden poles in and stick a camoague net over
the top this would be relatively easy, and the piece is
large enough to comfortably accommodate a AT gun
or at least 5-6 gures.
hold it. This was followed by a light brown covering,

like a heavy dry brush, to try and bulk up the layers
of colouring on it. I wanted to try and achieve a more
yellow appearance one the whole, as I felt the one
on the Urban Construct website was a bit white and
bland. Just personal opinion, but I wanted a bit more
colour and brightness to the piece.
The light brown was then followed by a heavy drybrushing of yellow ochre over the sandbags, leaving
only the recesses untouched with the brown in. this
was to try and achieve a look of there being mud and
85
Reviews
28mm Sandbag Emplacement/

Machine Gun Nest
Reviews
Cornelius the Wizard
Words: Rebecca Hubbard

Photography: Anthony Barnes
Micro Arts Studio

Cornelius is a generic fantasy wizard carrying a large
book, numerous bags and scrolls, plus a cat, some
bottles and he even has a small gnome by his feet.
This is a one piece miniature from Micro Art Studio
and, unlike their Discworld range, he comes in resin.
At 5.40 plus pp, which in GBP is less than 5, its a
good price for a resin gure.
Painting
I usually complete a gaming mini in about 2 painting
sessions (Im not the fastest painter in the world), so
I was surprised that it look me 3 sessions to complete the wizard - and that did not include basing.
The reason for this was the detail - theres so much
of it. There are straps with buckles on his robes, a
scroll and a feather on his hat, and the swirls on the
book and cloak are sculpted in place. I actually found
these swirls a bit awkward. They saved having to add
freehand to the cloak - which is a great idea - but it
actually made painting the cloak more difcult as I
was constantly working around them.
There is a lot going on with this model and I found it

difcult to tell what parts were until I looked at the
painted version on the Micro Arts web store. Its worth
noting that the store version has a completely different base. Mine arrived with his feet (plus gnome) at
on an integral standard square 25mm gaming base.
In the picture his feet are on top of a stone. I think this
is a bit misleading, as this is the only picture of the
miniature I could nd on the website.
Preparation
I was very happy that it was a one piece miniature, as
I like to get my gaming pieces done fairly quickly, and
less time on preparation is always good. However, I
was very disappointed as it was not the same quality
as previous resin items I have bought from Micro Arts
Studio in the past.
There was a lot of ash, and with this being a very
detailed piece, its not always easy to tell where youre
supposed to stop cleaning sometimes! There were a
few small mould lines that cleaned up easily enough,
but there was a lot of pitting and roughness in some
areas that really needed some putty attention, and
if Id had more spare time I would have spent a lot
longer on preparation.
Overall, I did not enjoy working on this model, but

now the paint is on it Im liking it more. Im not quite
sure who its aimed at though. I think it would be
great as an RPG character, but the amount of work
required on this mini seems a bit excessive for a NPC.
The nish is just not up to the standard for a display
piece, but he might work well in a complex diorama.
Its a good price, but if youre thinking of giving resin
a go for the rst time I think you would better getting
one of Micro Arts scenic bases instead.
86
Words & Photography: Jason Hubbard
Warlord Games
Another set of plastic sprues landed on my desk again

this month, though this time they were from Warlord,
and fairly modern, being WWII Late German Infantry.
These are the rst plastic World War Two miniatures
available to my knowledge, not only from Warlord but
in general.
I like plastic models, due to the amount of customisation you can do, and the exibility it allows you in
constructing a unit. The sprues have enough heads
and equipment to allow you to build an uniquely different miniature each time. The choice of weapons is
really good, everything from a pistol, through to MP40
SMGs and a MG42.
I also realised that these guys could be easily customised into modern/sci- miniatures if you used parts
from other manufacturers.
Each box contains enough parts to make 25 multi
part plastic miniatures, and I found them very easy
and quick to build, which is great. The detail on these
guys is really high, which will make painting them
very painless.
For anyone who games in the period of World War
Two I would denitely recommend picking a box or
two up and adding to your army. If youre thinking
of starting a WWII army then these are the perfect
choice.
The models are well sculpted, and the cast is exceptional as I would expect from Warlord - these guys
excel at producing high quality, cheap plastic miniatures. There was very little in the way of mold lines,
and the one I did nd were very easy to remove.
87
Reviews
WWII German Infantry
Reviews
28mm El Cid Range
Words & Photography: Jason Hubbard
HaT Miniatures
This Month a few test sprues landed on my desk from
HaT Productions from their 28mm range. These were
forthcoming releases from the El Cid range of miniatures which included the following;
28018
28019
28020
28021
An aspect I did notice with these miniatures is the

minimal amount of mold lines, and those that do exist
are easily removed. The one thing I didnt like were
the spears that are connected to the rider, mainly because the spears are quite fragile. I prefer to use metal
spears with my cavalry. This isnt a major issue as it
would be quite easy to remove the spears, drill out
the hands and replace them with metal counterparts.
28mm Andalusian Light Cavalry

28mm Andalusian Heavy Cavalry
28mm Almoravid Light Cavalry
28mm Almoravid Heavy Cavalry
This isnt normally a period I play or research or know

much about beyond the Charlton Heston movie El
Cid, so when I picked these up I was slightly intrigued.
As these are test shots I suspect that there will be
changes made before the nal run. HaT have already
informed me that some will need more detailing
before the nal run.
The rst thing that jumped out at me from the sprues
initially was the horses. These are really nice, with
excellent detailing and are well proportioned. I also
liked the poses the horses are sculpted into as well.
In regards to their scale, which is said to be 28mm,

these are smaller in comparison to other manufacturers, which in itself isnt an issue, but it is something to
consider if youre going to purchase other manufacturers ranges to go alongside these.
The riders have a good combination of differing types,

which will give any unit a more individual look and
feel. This is something I prefer, rather than a unit of
troops who all look exactly the same. This is one of the
reasons that these appeal to me - I rather like them,
and though I dont game in the El Cid campaign, I
could use them as Arabic warriors for early crusade
gaming.
Overall I really liked these miniatures and look forward to painting some of them.
88
Words : Dan Lee
Games Workshop
First let me begin by making it clear that this isnt a
review of the Warhammer 8th Edition rules; I feel that
it will take several months of gaming before a proper
review could be written - so maybe in the next issue.
It took me just over a week to read the new rulebook
and there are several qualities to the book that I feel
make it stand out.
The book itself is huge at just over 500 pages long,
but it seems to be fairly sturdy. Every page is in full
colour and it comes with a built in book mark (very
handy in a book this big). I also only counted around
three typos in the whole book, which isnt bad for
something with so much text. These certainly help
to justify its price of 45. Of course it is the contents
of the book that we really care about. As usual for
a Games Workshop (GW) product, the book is lled
with stunning artwork. Many pictures are full of small
interesting details that you can spend ages looking
for.
The book begins, as you would expect, with the new
rules for Warhammer. Without commenting on the
rules themselves, this section of the book is well written. Each rule begins with a summary in bold and is
then followed by more detailed text. By just reading
the bold text you can learn most of the new rules in
an hour of reading or so. The rules are presented in a
sensible order and the special rules have all been consolidated into one section. Notes in the margin help
cover things that dont quite warrant a rule, but are
worth mentioning anyway, such as resolving disputes
and cocked dice.
The next section of the book covers the history of
the Warhammer world and this is where I was rst
surprised. Rather than the usual GW copy and paste
job, I found that most of the text had actually been rewritten, with each race and period of history having
a little bit of new material. The extra effort made the
whole uff section an interesting read, rather than a
chore.
Next came around 100 pages of miniature showcases and this section holds yet another surprise: the
chapter actually begins with a brief introduction to
the history of wargames and shows evidence of some
pretty good research. I had no idea that the earliest
model soldiers were found in Egyptian tombs, or that
the Prussian army used to supplement ofcer training
with miniature wargames. As for the showcase, many
of the models I had seen before, but some pages were
dedicated to Golden Demon winners and they were a
particularly welcome addition.
The quality was, of course, superb, but the models

were also much more interesting to look at than standard Eavy Metal models.
The rest of the book seemed to be aimed at getting
players to experiment with the rules. Several scenarios
are included that arent necessarily balanced, but look
very fun. Advice is also given on designing your own
scenarios and running various types of campaign. A
battle report is included which is a good example of
a scenario run by a games master, though the cynic in
me thinks the outcome of a minor win may have been
staged. The end of this section of the book details
a massive battle, with background for the key units
and characters. I found it to be very interesting as
Ive never seen a battle described in that much detail
before (I stopped reading White Dwarf years ago so
maybe its a more common format now).
The book ends with a reference section which
includes rules for the laws of magic and common
magic items. I heard rumours that the rules summary
contains lots of contradictions with the main text, but
to be honest I havent checked if you have the book
with you just look up the rule in the start of the book.
The rst few pages of the reference section did make
me giggle. After introducing the section as containing all the essential information you will need, the
rst two pages describe how to buy more GW stuff.
In a book this big I guess I can let them off with a few
pages of advertisement though.
As for the books downsides: if you try to carry this
to each of your games youre going to give yourself
a back injury it is impractically big and heavy. The
rules for selecting spells and for magic items are in
the reference section rather than with the main rules,
which I found to be a bit odd. GW also made a major
omission form the rst printing: they forgot to explain
how to decide who won properly! The positive side of
this is that the errata sheet they put in the rulebook
provides a convenient second book mark.
Overall Im happy with my purchase. I enjoyed reading it and I got the impression the GW really tried to
produce something new.
89
Reviews
Warhammer 8th Edition
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http://irregularmagazine.com
Issue 7 / Winter 11 out January 8th

Irregular Magazine Autumn 2010

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Editorial

Nick Johnson & Jason Hubbard

Skirmish Painting Competition Results

Stage Magician Prestige Class

Iron, Steam & Really Short People Part 2

Meet the Mages of Middle Earth

The Death of Magic

Didnt We Have a Lovely time the Day We

A Drink with Nick Kyme

Euro Militaire 2010

Shefeld Kotei 2010

A Gaming Groups Adventure GD USA

The Application of Paint

Brett Johnson & Rebecca Hubbard

Sculpting Robes in Greenstuff

A Step by Step; Nanny Ogg

Discworld miniature Review

Hearts & Minds: Flying Lead Supplement

Britanan Grenadiers & Troopers

Fields of Glory: Renaissance

28mm Sandbag Emplacement

Cornelius the Wizard

WW2 German Infantry

Skirmish Painting Competition Results

Back in July we announced our summer painting

Jason: 9/10 This is a really nice piece, its well painted.

We had some fantastic entries, from a wide range of

Nick: 9/10 - Nice use of blood effects from the sword.

In 1st place, and winning $50 worth of Dragon Forge

Jason: 8/10 - Very nicely done, love the work on the

In 3rd place winning $20 of Dragon Forge Design

Jason: 8/10 - An interesting piece, nice esh on the

Closing date for entries is: December 5th 2010.

This issue Irregular Magazine is offering one lucky

Check out the competition page of our website for

We know lots of our readers enjoy painting historical

Words: Dave Barker

Prestige Class (Pathnder)

but they have at least found a role in life that pays

Base attack Bonus

Spells per day

+1 level of existing class

Hand Unmagic, Stage +1 level of existing class

Penetrating Unmagic +1 level of existing class

Stage Spells 6/day

+1 level of existing class

+1 level of existing class

+1 level of existing class

Stage Spells 8/day

+1 level of existing class

+1 level of existing class

+1 level of existing class

Weapon and Armour Prociency: Stage Magicians

+1 level of existing class

Spells per Day: When a new Stage Magician level is

Unmagic: Starting at 1st level, a Stage magician can

Once the character has learned a specic Stage Effect

Part of the reason for this is possible is that the Stage

At 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th levels of Stage Magician, the

Hand Unmagic: Beginning at 2nd level, the Stage

Invisible Unmagic: At 7th level, a Stage Magician

Penetrating Unmagic: At 4th level, a Stage Magician

Grand Unmagic: At 9th level, a Stage Magician

Words & Photography: Nick Johnson